Increasing transparency: Israel Competition Authority Will Publish List of Transactions Under Review

The Israel Competition Authority (ICA) announced that as of March 31, 2025, it will begin publishing on its website a list of pending merger transactions and exemption applications for restrictive trade arrangements that are under its review.

This means that a very existence of a transaction will become public immediately upon submission of a merger notice or an exemption application to the ICA. This marks a change from the previous policy, under which merger transactions and exemption applications submitted for examination were typically publicized only after the ICA had issued its decision – and, in some cases, were not published at all if the parties decided to withdraw the application (for example, in light of the ICA’s expected opposition).

The list to be published will include, inter alia, the following details for each transaction under review by the ICA:

• The names of the parties to the transaction
• The submission date of merger notices or exemption applications to the ICA
• The ICA team leader responsible for examining the transaction
• For merger transactions – a link to the submitted merger notice, excluding the confidential chapters.

The list will be updated twice a week (on Mondays and Thursdays). Additionally, a separate list will be published for transactions whose examination was completed during the previous month.

The ICA stated that, as a rule, any transaction submitted for examination will be included in the public list. Parties wishing to prevent the public disclosure of transaction details in exceptional circumstances will be required to submit a reasoned application to the ICA prior to submitting the relevant documents. This application must specify the special circumstances that justify the non-disclosure of the transaction on the ICA’s website.

The purpose of this policy change is to enhance the transparency of the ICA’s examination process, and it is expected to result in significantly greater disclosure within its approval procedures. In particular, the new approach will make it easier for third parties to appeal merger approvals, as it will enable market participants to receive earlier access to information regarding transactions being examined by the ICA – even when those transactions involve private companies that are not otherwise required to disclose them publicly.

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Adv. Irit Brodsky is a partner in the Antitrust and Competition department.

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