Insights & News

Adv. Ilan Blumenfeld, Partner in the Antitrust Department at Barnea, wrote an opinion article in The Marker, dealing with the question of whether and how to enforce on a monopoly the prohibition of charging excessive and unfair prices.

A comprehensive survey conducted by Codex, a leading HR company for lawyers in Israel, which was initiated by Barnea, was published in Globes. In the survey, future legal interns were questioned on how they feel in light of the flooding of the profession, how they choose where to intern and more. Adv. Micky Barnea, Managing Partner at Barnea, commented that the initiative came from the recognition that there is a change in the current generation of interns and the need to understand the impact on their internship.

Dr. Zvi Gabbay, Partner and Head of the Capital Markets Department at Barnea, in an opinion article for Finance Magnets following a new proposed bill to prohibit the management and operation of binary options trading platforms out of Israel , even if regulated elsewhere.

The Tel Aviv District Court rejected the lawsuit filed by Nespresso and the global food company, Nestle, against the Israeli company, Espresso Club. Nespresso claimed that Espresso Club’s advertisement, which uses a look-alike of George Clooney, violates the intellectual property of Nespresso and constitutes unfair competition. The Court rejected Nespresso's claims and ordered it to pay Espresso Club NIS 110,070  in legal costs. Espresso Club was represented by Adv. Zohar Lande, Adv. Itay Hatam and Adv. Gili Cohen-Arazi from Barnea

Adv. Maya Zisser, Partner in the Real Estate Department in an article in The Marker, following a temporary injunction issued by the High Court ordering the State to explain why the New Multi-Apartment Act should not be canceled. Maya commented that those people to whom the new Law applies should hold back on any actions designed to counter the application of the law, as such actions may be irreversible.

Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Gilli Cohen Arazi from the Litigation Department at Barnea in an article for Chambers and Partners on recent trends in Israeli case law, which may indicate a change in the Israeli courts' attitude to judicial intervention in the business judgment of the Board of a corporation.

Dr. Zvi Gabbay, Partner and Head of the Capital Markets Department at Barnea, was interviewed by Globes, following the exposure of cases of bribery by Israeli businessmen. Zvi commented that the Israeli prohibition against bribing a foreign public servant is new. However, the law was enacted in the US in 1977 and the US has caused other countries to align with it.

Our Head of the Internet Department at Barnea, in an article (in Hebrew) for The Marker, discussing the question of how e-commerce activities may be subject to different legal systems, which can contain rules that do not match and even contradict, especially in matters of licensing and regulation.

Adv. Itay Gura will lecture today on the topic of founders agreements at 'Ignition' - the Entrepreneurship Course of Startau, Tel Aviv University Entrepreneurship Center.

Barnea, together with the Israel-South Africa Chamber of Commerce, is hosting today a cocktail event to promote networking between South African businessmen living in Israel and Israeli businessmen.

Adv. Marie Tsion, Head of the Employment Department at Barnea was interviewed by The Lawyer regarding the effect of the E-2 visa programme on the legal market. Marie commented that the E-2 investor visas will allow US companies, entrepreneurs and employees to start business activities in Israel more easily. This visa is likely to increase the number of US companies establishing activities in Israel.

Barnea is today hosting a delegation of Israeli ambassadors who are stationed in Latin America, together with the Latin America division of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israel-Latin America Chamber of Commerce and StarTau, the Entrepreneurship Center of Tel Aviv University.

The Accelerator connects Startups with Financial Institutions. Barnea & Co is the firm which will provide legal services in Israel to the startups attending the Program in Frankfurt. On 12th February we will be holding an introductory event at which the Accelerator will describe the nature and aims of the Program and Micky Barnea will discuss the challenges for startups heading abroad. The event will be take place at Barclay's Techstars Accelerator. 

Adv. Ilan Blumenfeld, Partner in the Antitrust department at Barnea was interviewed by The Marker following Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket chain’s announcement that  it is in the early stages of examining the possibility of acquiring local drugstore chain, New-Pharm Drugstores. Ilan commented that in the event that Shufersal acquires New Pharm, the Antitrust Authority will have to approve the deal by examining the market power of the merged entity.

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax department at Barnea, was interviewed by Tax Analysts following the arrest of the chief executive of Deutsche Bank's operation in Israel on suspicion of violating VAT law. The Israel Tax Authority claims that the customers, in respect of whom Deutsche Bank reported its transactions as being zero rated, allegedly because they were conducted on behalf of “foreign residents”, were actually Israeli residents. Harel commented that it is often difficult to determine whether someone is a foreign tax resident.

Adv. Zohar Lande and Moran Bickel from the Litigation Department at Barnea represented the CEO of Kitov Pharmaceuticals at a hearing in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court relating to his release from detention, subject to certain restrictive conditions.

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax Department at Barnea, was interviewed by Bitcoin.com regarding the Israeli Tax Authority’s (ITA) draft on digital currencies. Harel commented that the draft circular is a declaration of intent from the ITA and at this stage no draft legislation has been published.

Doing Business in Israel? A Q&A guide to doing business in Israel written by Barnea was published in the Practical Law website. The guide gives an overview of the legal system, foreign investment, regulation, and other issues pertaining to Israel.

Our Litigation Department was interviewed by Maariv's "The Weekend" following Eliezer Fishman's declaration of bankruptcy. We noted there are ways to prevent the loss of all family assets, even in the event of bankruptcy, and to avoid involving the family assets with business assets.

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax Department at Barnea, lectured today on taxation of startups at the AtoBe – Azrieli College of Engineering Startup Accelerator.