Client updates

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.

Small and medium-sized corporations are a central part of the Israeli economy’s growth engine and are considered major contributors to employment growth. The Israel Securities Authority is seeking to assist these businesses in diversifying their funding sources.

The new rules will require managers of large hedge funds to disclose additional information about their activities and strategies and provide more detail about their investments, including the countries and industries in which they are invested, leverage exposures, and more. As expected, fund managers are objecting, arguing that the new requirements will lead to superfluous information overload.

The court’s decision to start enforcement proceedings, in addition to the provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) already being enforced, is expected to lead to a significant increase in enforcement against companies that fall in the scope of the CCPA.

The United States, the European Union, and other countries have been imposing economic sanctions on Israel for quite some time. The recent sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers suspected or convicted of committing violence against Palestinians may be a harbinger of a broad regime of sanctions that may affect business activities in Israel.

Uber’s insufficiently clear privacy protection policy and lack of transparency about the collection of personal information on its employees resulted in a heavy fine.

As a rule, employers in Israel that provide company cars for their employees’ use must attribute income to those employees in accordance with the imputed value of the use of the car prescribed in the Income Tax Regulations. Moreover, even if the car was in the employee’s possession for only part of the month, employers must attribute income to the employees for the full imputed value of the use of the car. However, the Israel Tax Authority has issued new special instructions because of the Swords of Iron War.

The Tel Aviv District Court recently reduced agreed settlements between respondents and petitioners in motions to certify class actions alleging website accessibility violations. It is thus signaling to serial petitioners that filing a motion to certify a class action is a last resort and that they must first complain to the website owner.

The new law brings clarity to issues of international arbitration and helps parties to an agreement reach decisions and wisely plan ahead for any possible commercial disputes.