Client updates

The Israel Securities Authority is tightening enforcement on companies, especially in the cryptographic assets sector, and is scrutinizing companies’ anti-money laundering procedures and policies and their implementation.

An Israeli court ordered the McDonald’s fast food chain to pay ILS 40,000 to Maayan Parti, a consumer reporter for Israel’s Channel 12 News, after McDonald’s used the reporter’s name without her consent in an advertising campaign for the chain’s ice cream.

Developed for over two years, the American Privacy Rights Act proposes establishing a nationwide standard for privacy and data security, to empower individuals to control their personal information, as part of their right to privacy.

Under MiCA, a critical aspect for non-EU crypto firms is the reverse solicitation exemption. This rule allows firms from outside the EU to offer crypto-asset services to EU clients without needing MiCA authorization.

The purpose of the draft bill is to increase transparency in the Israeli tax system in order to avoid a negative assessment of the State of Israel by the Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information, as well as to increase efforts to combat unreported capital.

The Supreme Court noted that, by its nature, the essence of a brokerage transaction is joining two parties into one transaction. Therefore, treating the transaction as providing a service to each party separately—a foreign resident and an Israeli resident—does not reflect the true economic essence of the service.

The purpose of reducing convalescence days and freezing the pay rate in 2024 is to budget benefits for reservists.

The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) fined a corporation for violation of the GDPR due to flaws in its personal data collection and user consent practices, even though the data was collected by a third party.

The Israeli National Labor Court reversed the Regional Labor Court’s ruling and ruled that the demotion of a football referee to a lower league derived from irrelevant considerations of weight and appearance.

A recently signed general permit makes it easier for employees to make up for missed work hours due to constraints deriving from the absence of their spouses or the other parent of their children as a result of the state of emergency in Israel.

According to the update, which will take effect on April 1, 2024, the minimum wage for a full-time job will be ILS 5,880.02. The increase will also be reflected in the sums of social contributions to provident and severance pay funds, vacation pay, overtime pay, and sick pay.

The provisions of the collective bargaining agreement came into effect upon the promulgation of the extension order. These provisions include directives regarding employee dismissals, rights of spouses of reservists, and more.

An extension order applies the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement and regulates the payment of wages to employees who were unable to report to work due to the Swords of Iron War.

Companies which distribute content online have been subject to the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) since February 2024, which obligates them to protect their users from offensive and illegal content, enable users to report such content, etc. The DSA applies to any company whose content is accessible to European audience, regardless of its country of incorporation or the identity of its owners.

The AI Act applies, similar to other European legislation, to companies not based in the European Union but have activity in the Union. Therefore, it may also affect Israeli companies offering services in Europe.

The Israeli Innovation Authority hopes to encourage the growth of start-up companies with innovative technologies through the launch of new start-up funds, which will invest in Pre-Seed, Seed and Round A rounds.

A new Israeli Supreme Court ruling redraws the boundaries for recognizing agreements and signals that informal agreements may also be legally binding.

The Israel Securities Authority’s publications in recent months do not reflect the final version of the directives, but indicate the ISA’s approach when regulating payment services: setting out the licensing process and the licensing requirements, defining criteria for exemptions, technological requirements, safeguarding and protecting customers’ funds, examining service providers’ integrity, etc.

The subjects of copyright and the protection thereof are core issues for companies that use artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the agreements in place between different players in the economy and AI technology providers include provisions that protect such players against legal claims in relation to copyright

In a paradoxical twist, the Israel Securities Authority also monitors unsupervised entities, to prevent them from exceeding their operational parameters without a license. Consequently, the ISA possesses the power to request documents and information from these entities, emphasizing the importance of responding honestly and comprehensively to such demands.