Client updates

Israel’s new “Angels Law” grants tax benefits to investors in Israeli startups, and in the Israeli high-tech industry in general, with the goal of spurring the growth of high-tech companies based in Israel or whose intellectual property is registered in Israel.

As of September 2023, employees will be able to enroll in managers’ insurance plans only if their salaries exceed twice the average wage in Israel, in order to ensure they receive adequate pensions.

Regulation by enforcement is designing tests to ascertain which cryptographic assets fall under the definition of “security” in the wake of the XRP crypto token court ruling.

According to the Competition Authority’s Director General, the negative covenants included in the merger agreement between Strauss Group and Wyler Farm raise concerns of harm to competition, and the parties began implementing the merger before receiving approval.

Amendments to the Israeli Succession Law have recently come into effect that expand the authority of the Succession Registrar, reduce the number of matters transferred to the Family Court, and limit instances of the Custodian General’s supervision over estate executors.

The number of companies with a decentralized ownership structure, i.e., with no controlling shareholder, has been rising in recent years, as has their share of the capital traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The recently proposed amendment to the Israeli Companies Law aims to revise the corporate governance regulations specifically applicable to such companies. 

The new arrangement for transferring information about EU citizens to the United States offers European and foreign companies a simpler mechanism to enable their privacy protection procedures to be recognized as GDPR-compliant.

In a precedential ruling, the Supreme Court stated that the profit test for dividend distribution only includes an examination of the financial statements from the last two years. According to the ruling, there is no room to take into account information regarding an expected loss that has not yet appeared in the reports.

Who is responsible for protecting the privacy of the information AI technologies collect? A new class action in California joins a series of AI-related lawsuits that may clarify this question.

For the first time, the Israel Tax Authority has announced its position regarding investments via SAFEs. It determined that, under particular circumstances, the investment is to be considered an advance on a share investment account.

The amendment is part of the government’s efforts to bring down the cost of living by increasing competition in the import sector. However, the amendment also imposes considerable restrictions on direct importers.

Minutes of board meetings and board committee meetings have become a key tool for Israeli courts when examining directors’ conduct against the business judgment rule. Therefore, it is important to know how to record, document, and distribute minutes.

As part of a series of measures to combat the cost of living, the Israel Competition Authority’s Director General is taking broad law enforcement measures for the first time against major food suppliers for violations of the Food Law. Inter alia, the Food Law prohibits food suppliers and retailers from engaging in various commercial arrangements that could prevent small suppliers or retailers from competing. 

This is not the first time the Israel Competition Authority has imposed sanctions on companies that fail to respond adequately to its demands for data. However, this is the highest sum ever imposed for such a violation and approaches the maximum the ICA’s Director General may impose in this regard.

The Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling contains strict determinations regarding simulated contracts whose sole purpose is to defraud the tax authorities and the banking system. Inter alia, the Supreme Court addressed an ongoing judicial debate about the classification of simulated contracts.

Employers that want to use technological surveillance measures to monitor and track employee performance remotely must be diligent about formulating a clear policy, informing employees, and using these means reasonably and proportionately.

It is surprising to realize Israel does not have a general regulatory binding framework for the approval of such transactions as they pertain to national security, like CFIUS in the United States , the recent UK National Security and Investment Act 2021, or similar bodies in developed countries. As a result, there are no broad cross-sector consolidated controls on foreign investments.

The SEC is expanding the application of US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act provisions. It is commencing law enforcement proceedings against non-American companies operating outside the United States and against actions that merely raise concerns of acts of corruption. Companies with international operations must familiarize themselves with the FCPA’s provisions and prepare accordingly.

An EUR 1.2 billion fine was imposed on Meta after the EDPB ruled the company was systematically transferring the personal data of millions of Facebook users from the European Union to servers in the United States in violation of the European GDPR.

New provisions set out the licensing framework for the provision of payment services, designed to encourage new players to enter the Israeli market and offer payment services while providing broad protection to consumers. The law will apply to companies providing payment services, credit service providers, acquirers, and more.