Insights & News

Adv. Ariella Dreyfuss will lecture today at the Ben-Gurion University Innovation Program on the topics of founders' agreements, IP, and investment agreements.

Barnea hosted an ICOs and digital currencies event featuring a lecture on regulation opportunities and challenges. Harel Perlmutter also discussed the taxation of cryptographic coins and the Israel Tax Authority's position.

Roni Lish, the minority shareholder in the franchise company of the French culinary brand Fauchon, is suing his partner in the franchise. Roni claims his partner acted to reduce the value of the company in order to control it and to remove him from the company. Roni Lish is represented by Advs. Zohar Lande and Gilli Cohen-Arazi of our firm's Litigation Department.

Yuval Lazi, a partner in our Technology Department, will lecture today to the participants of the Tel Aviv University Student Union's Elite Entrepreneurship Program on shareholder agreements and startups' Cinderella stories.

Following a bill promoted by the Israel Securities Authority, and passed by the Knesset, outlawing binary options trading by Israeli companies, Yukom Communications LTD and its controlling shareholder, Yossi Herzog, filed a petition to the High Court of Justice. Overseeing the filing of the petition were Barnea attorneys Zohar Lande, Eyal Nachshon, and Moran Bickel.

The High Court of Justice ruled in a temporary order that the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council should explain why it did not announce RGE as the winner of the tender for the operation of the Knesset Channel, following the disqualification of Channel 20's offer. RGE is represented by Advs. Zohar Lande, Ronen Reingold, Adi Shoham, and Itay Hatam of our firm's Litigation Department.

Adv. Micky Barnea, our firm's managing partner, was interviewed by Globes on the major events that have taken place in Israel's capital market in the past year: the re-emergence of initial public offerings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the Bezeq affair, and ICOs.

An article in Financial Magnates discusses the Israel Securities Authority's approach to initial coin offerings (ICO) and cryptocurrencies and how this approach compares to other jurisdictions.

An interview following the Ministry of Economy and Industry's recently published draft bill placing restrictions on telemarketing.

Following the Panama Papers leak, Israeli authorities have arrested two Israelis on suspicion of evading millions of shekels in tax payments by using companies registered in offshore tax havens. Harel Perlmutter, a partner and head of Barnea's Tax Department, commented to Bloomberg BNA that even though many Israelis were named in the leaked documents, most of them appear to have been using the offshore havens for reasons other than tax evasion.

Our firm gave several media interviews following the Israel Securities Authority Chairman's remarks that companies whose values are based on bitcoin will not be included in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's (TASE) indices until a suitable regulatory framework is established. We noted that it is important to distinguish between the inclusion of companies engaged in trading and investing in virtual currencies on TASE's indices and the possibility that such companies will actually be traded on TASE.

Our firm represented Guy Aharonovski in a lawsuit against his former partner in CoinDash, a platform for managing investments in cryptographic currencies. Aharonovski is claiming his former partner disqualified him from his share in the company, founded Queen-Dash behind his back, and issued tokens called CDT that enabled the use of the platform provided by the company.

Barnea represented Israeli startup EXO Technologies, a developer of GPS technology for autonomous and connected vehicle applications, in its acquisition by the American corporation Lear.

The Ministry of Finance has decided to discontinue horse racing in Israel starting on January 1, 2018. Adv. Zohar Lande, the head of our firm's Litigation Department, represented GBI Racing, the British company that provides betting services to Toto, in negotiations with the Ministry of Finance.

Micky Barnea was interviewed by TheMarker regarding the effects on Israeli corporate tax following the U.S. Senate's approval of tax cuts that would lower the corporate rate to 20% from 35%, a move that has left Israel’s headline rate three percentage points higher.

Adv. Yuval Lazi, a partner in our firm's Technology Department, is taking part in a special delegation of Israeli investors. The investors are traveling to Belgrade, Serbia for the first time to become acquainted with the Serbian startup ecosystem.

Barnea is hosting today another round of lectures for startups and entrepreneurs on the subject of data protection and privacy. Also to be discussed is the obligation of accessibility on the Internet. In addition, the seminar will feature a guest lecture from the Israeli Digital Organization.

Adv. Ariel Nadler, head of our firm's Real Estate Department, was interviewed by TheMarker's real estate magazine on the cancellation of the Multiple Housing Taxation Law by the Supreme Court. Ariel commented that regulators will now have to provide a solution to those people who already sold their apartments in order to enjoy the tax benefit that was guaranteed. He also noted that the cancellation will affect apartment owners considering to sell.

The issue of an NPO’s investments of unappropriated funds (funds that are not immediately needed within the scope of its activities or for the purpose of advancing its objectives, whether on a short-term or on a longer-term basis) is not regulated within the scope of the Non-Profit Organizations Law or the Income Tax Ordinance. Asaf Shalev contributed an article to Globes in regard to this matter. (In Hebrew)