Client updates

A few days ago, the Israeli Antitrust Authority published a draft statement presenting its position with regard to the circumstances under which a supplier will be able to dictate the resale price of its products to its distributor for the next link in the supply chain (Resale Price Maintenance arrangements – RPM), without such an arrangement being considered an illegal restrictive arrangement.

A Supreme Court judgment handed down in December by the Honorable Justice Yoram Danziger ruled that the demand by local planning and building committees that deeds of indemnity be signed is illegal (Bikel Flowers Ltd. vs. the Local Planning and Building Committee – Rishon Letsiyon).

Further to the recent hearing held in October 2016 (see our clients update dated 01 December 2016), the Electricity Authority published on 19 December 2016, a decision detailing the main principles of the upcoming competitive process for the construction of Solar Power Plants in Israel, with a capacity of up to 1,000 MW.

In order to improve the Israeli partnership market and in order to bridge the wide gap that exists between partnership laws in Israel and the partnership laws in other countries, in December 2016, the Ministry of Justice published a draft Memorandum of Law – Partnerships.

The Law establishes a mandatory licensing requirement for financial service-providers – credit providers or providers of financial asset services. One of the main innovations in this Law is that Financial Services Providers will be subject, for the first time, to supervision by a new financial regulator. 

On December 2016 for the first time in Israel, an Israeli company was convinced for bribing a foreign public official. This is especially interesting due to the fact that this is also the first time the general prosecution in Israel based an indictment on Section 291A of the Israeli Penal Law, that was enacted in 2008, in the course of Israel’s efforts to join the OECD as a member country.

District Court rules that an unlawful restrictive provision can lead to cancellation of a 40 years agreement.

About a year and a half ago a new regulatory regime regulating trading rings entered into force, requiring the operators of trading rings to obtain a regulatory license as a pre-condition to operating them, and prohibiting the operation of a trading ring without such a license.  

Recently, the Finance Committee concluded its deliberations regarding the imposition of tax legislation pertaining to “wallet companies” within the scope of the Arrangements Law for 2017 – 2018.

Three updates to employee rights (Minimum Wage – Annual Paid Leave – Pension) came into effect on July 2016. The following is important news about the next update to employee rights, which is expected to come into effect on 1.1.2017.

November 2016 marked the first time that the Ministry of Infrastructures and Energy invited an open international call for bids for 24 licenses to 24 blocks (each not exceeding 400 km²) in Israel’s economic waters at a distance of at least 7 kilometers from the shore.

In October 2016, the Electricity Authority published a draft resolution to hold a hearing regarding the arrangement of a competitive proceeding to set the tariff payable for electricity generation using photovoltaic technology.

A customary practice in the credit market makes the provision of financing for a corporation contingent upon the creation of a floating charge on all of its assets in favor of the financier. In most instances, the bond terms relating to the lien also include a ”negative pledge” – a restrictive stipulation that prohibits a corporation from creating additional liens without receiving the financier’s prior written approval.

A few days ago the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee enacted an amendment to Section 35 of the website accessibility regulations, called “the Equal Rights for People with Disabilities (Service Accessibility Adjustments) Regulations 5773-2013” (the “Regulations”).

In an unprecedented action, the Knesset Finance Committee has recently recognized an Israeli organization operating abroad as a ‘public institution’ pursuant to section 46 of the Israeli Income Tax Ordinance. Such recognition affords the non-profit organization, a tax benefit, by way of a tax credit to donors for their donations granted to that organization.

The Knesset’s new anti-spam legislation includes any advertisement disseminated to the public at large that asks for a contribution or that constitutes non-commercial propaganda.

After years of district courts issuing contradictory rulings, the Supreme Court recently resolved the ambiguity surrounding the classification of compensation in respect of non-competition covenants when employees leave employers.

After about a year of uncertainty about the pension insurance allocation ratios according to Amendment number 12 to the Control of Financial Services (Provident Funds) Law of August 2015, the matter has recently been resolved.

An amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance that was recently enacted obligates financial institutions to identify the residency and citizenship of their foreign account holders. The financial institutions are required to report the information to the Israel Tax Authority, so that the ITA can then relay that information to the relevant foreign tax authority.