Client updates / High Tech

Article 50 of the EU AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026 and imposes transparency obligations requiring organizations to make clear when individuals are interacting with AI or are being exposed to AI-generated or AI-manipulated content. It applies to providers and deployers of certain AI systems, including generative and interactive AI systems and deepfakes.

Publicly accessible personal data is not automatically available for AI training use: In Guidelines 03/2026, published for public comment on July 7, 2026, the EDPB clarifies that the mere fact that personal data is publicly accessible online does not, on its own, allow it to be collected and reused for AI training under the GDPR.

Following progress on the Omnibus legislative package, the European Commission has published draft guidelines on the classification of high-risk AI systems. While not legally binding, the draft guidelines provide an early indication of how the Commission is likely to interpret and apply the AI Act’s risk-based framework in practice.

The European Parliament has announced that agreement has been reached on the Digital Omnibus proposal for changes in the EU AI Act. Although still subject to completion of the formal legislative process, these changes represent a significant regulatory development and provide greater clarity as to the direction of EU AI legislation.

On April 15, 2026, the Israel Medical Association’s Ethics Department published a position paper outlining guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare system. Although the position paper addresses physicians and medical institutions, in practice, it has significant implications for healthtech and medtech companies. Since medical institutions will be required to align their activities with these principles, it is reasonable to assume this will directly impact their demands on technology providers.

The Israeli Privacy Protection Authority (PPA) has published a position paper clarifying its interpretation of Regulation 2(4) regarding the transfer of personal data abroad. In this context, it emphasizes the requirements applicable to organizations transferring data outside of Israel, including to the United States.

Israel’s Supreme Court is stepping up its efforts to address AI-generated hallucinations, and recently ordered the Ramat Gan Municipality to pay exceptional court expenses of ILS 30,000. This is due to the municipality’s reliance on fictitious case law and a non-existent Ministry of Education Director-General circular, in a way that violated a special education child’s right to transportation to his school.

The draft National Cybersecurity Law was published in January 2026. This significant regulatory measure is likely to have broad implications for organizations across the economy, especially digital service providers and entities that provide technological infrastructure.

Following an extensive public consultation process, a final report on the use of AI in the financial sector was published last week. The report was prepared by a committee comprising representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Competition Authority, the Israel Securities Authority, the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority, and the Bank of Israel.

The European Commission recently published the Digital Omnibus, aimed at simplifying data regulation within the European Union by amending key legislation governing digital data. In this update, we summarize the proposal’s key aspects.

The New York Times recently filed a major lawsuit against the artificial intelligence platform Perplexity AI for infringement of intellectual property rights. The importance of this lawsuit lies in the fact that it does not rely solely on “classic” claims of copyright infringement, but also includes innovative claims of trademark violations and damages.

At the end of October 2025, the Tel Aviv District Court issued a precedent-setting ruling in the Hexadite case, which deliberated fundamental issues relating to transfer prices and the appropriate way to determine the value of assets in restructuring transactions between related parties. This ruling is particularly relevant for multinational companies in Israel that carry out complex acquisition, sale or restructuring transactions, since it clarifies how these complexities should be resolved in practice, particularly within the context of tax gross-up, holdback payments and secondary adjustments.

The Israeli Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prohibition Authority (IMPA) published a document recently to raise awareness of the new challenges abuses of Generative AI and Deepfake pose to the financial sector. The document reviews the potential risks of use of these technologies, presents case studies from Israel and around the world, discusses emerging threats, and provides a list of “red flags” to help identify suspicious activities.

A significant development occurred last week at the interface between artificial intelligence and intellectual property following the settlement agreement reached by Anthropic in the class action lawsuit filed against it with the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Amendment 13 to the Israeli Privacy Protection Law is expected to come into effect in mid-August 2025. The amendment prescribes, inter alia, organizations’ obligation to appoint a data protection officer. The Privacy Protection Authority recently published a draft directive on implementing this obligation. The draft is not final and is open for public comments.

At the end of June 2025, the Northern California District Court issued two precedent-setting rulings addressing the legal question: Is it lawful to use copyrighted works for machine training of AI-based large language models (LLMs)?

Earlier this month, the US Senate voted 99-1 to strike a key clause in a sweeping Republican domestic policy bill that sought to impose a ten-year moratorium on states’ enforcement of artificial intelligence regulations.

The court’s determinations in the Kovach ruling underscore how important it is for employers to carefully and wisely manage their undertakings to grant Stock Options to employees, especially in startup companies that use options as a key remuneration tool.

The Israeli Privacy Protection Authority (PPA) published a draft directive recently to clarify its position about how businesses and organizations should apply the provisions of the Privacy Protection Law and the privacy regulations to artificial intelligence systems.

Earlier this month, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued draft guidelines on the processing of personal data through blockchain technologies.