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November 26, 2015
Israel signs OECD Automatic Tax Information Exchange Agreement
Israel signed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) to facilitate the automatic exchange of financial information, boosting the number of signatories to 91 and enhancing the global efforts against tax evasion, the OECD announced.
Harel Perlmutter was interviewed by Bloomberg BNA about this agreement.
November 25, 2015
Israeli Court eases TASE listing rules for foreign listed companies
The Economics Department of the Tel-Aviv – Jaffa District Court is continuing to issue precedent rulings, and this time, in relation to the interpretation of section 46.B. of the Securities Law, 5728 – 1968.
Discussions had been underway for some time between Mylan N.V., a foreign public company traded on the NASDAQ, and Perrigo Company Plc., a foreign company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange, relating to Mylan’s potential acquisition of Perrigo’s shares. After these discussions failed to mature into a transaction, Mylan announced in the United States its firm intention of publishing a tender offer for Perrigo’s shares, despite the fact that Perrigo’s board of directors had rejected the offer (i.e., a hostile takeover).
November 22, 2015
Israeli home prices rose in Q3
Israel's Government Assessor published today the fact that home prices rose 1.4% in the third quarter of 2015.
Adv Ariel Nadler, head of our Real Estate Department, was interviewed by Bizportal, saying that he believes that only an all encompassing solution to the problem of high property prices in Israel can stop this upward trend.
November 22, 2015
The average price of a home continued to rise in the third quarter
Ariel Nadler was interviewed by Globes regarding the Government Assessors Office report of a 1% rise in home prices in Israel's 16 largest cities from the second quarter and a 3% rise from a year ago.
November 17, 2015
Israeli Online Gaming Sector - Q&A
Q: You work extensively with companies operating in the online gaming sector – what are the legal and regulatory challenges faced by firms operating in this sphere?
A: The main legal and regulatory challenges which face online gambling operators is the worldwide shift from what is known as the .com situation to the .country environment. This relates mainly to the changes facing online gambling operators that are required, due to legislative changes, to obtain online gambling licenses in numerous jurisdictions across the world in order to continue their operation in those jurisdictions.
November 12, 2015
Draft Bill – New Transparency Obligations on Israeli NGOs with Foreign Funding
A new Israeli government draft bill was published last week for public comments – “Disclosure Obligations of Recipients of Support from Foreign Political Entities Law (Increased Transparency by Recipients of Support, when the Majority of their Funding is from Donations from Foreign Political Entities).”
The objective of this draft bill is to impose increased transparency on NGOs (associations/NPOs and public-benefit companies) regarding their activities, when the majority of their funding is from donations from ‘Foreign Political Entities’, beyond the transparency that is imposed on all recipients of such donations.
November 9, 2015
Barnea & co. represents Mr. Haim Levy
The trend for Israelis to operate investment companies abroad can lead to business disputes; Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Gal Livshits from Barnea represent Mr. Haim Levy, known for his book "Real estate in Jeans", in a million dollar lawsuit against two of his business partners who founded a real estate company in the United States.
November 8, 2015
Reform of Regulations Relating to Vetinary Supervision is important news for consumers in Israel
Recently the Economic Plan Bill, 2015 was enacted in Israel, which, inter alia, deals with regulations pertaining to veterinary supervision over meat products being marketed in Israel and introduces certain reforms in this regard. These reforms are important news for consumers in Israel, both in terms of protecting public health and considering the reform’s significant potential for reducing the cost of living.
November 8, 2015
“Green Licensing” Reform in Israel
Recently, the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection published a preliminary draft bill relating to the proposed Integrated Environmental Licensing Law, 5775-2015.
This preliminary draft bill, which is based on the European Union’s Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU, was disseminated as a result of the Israeli government’s decision in April 2015 to work towards improving environmental regulations and encouraging “green” growth by promoting an integrated environmental licensing law. This came in the wake of the Israeli government’s commitment as part of its OECD accession process, after a number of years of collaborative efforts between the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other government ministries and after consulting with numerous authorities in the business, public and third sectors.
November 8, 2015
New law Memorandum: New tax incentives for public high-tech companies and investors
In order to promote the technology and biomedical industries and to restore the Israeli stock exchange to its position as an efficient and attractive arena for capital raising to companies, an ad hoc committee was formed to analyze feasible tax incentives.
November 8, 2015
The Rise of Employees’ Unionization and Consultation Obligation during Transactions
The Collective Agreements Law provides that the union must represent the majority of unionized employees to whom the collective bargaining agreement applies, and no less than one-third of the total employees to whom the agreement applies. The union must notify the employer of its claim to be recognised as a representing body and the employer may examine the signatures of employees joining the union.
November 5, 2015
Summations filed in the Tisch versus Yogev case
After nearly three years of litigation proceedings relating to Edwin Tisch's claim against Ori Yogev, summations were submitted yesterday. Tisch claims that Whitewater and Yogev made false representations and acted fraudulently, causing Tisch to invest millions in Whitewater Holdings. According to Tisch, Yogev intoduced the project as the "Checkpoint" of the water industry, and "it is designed to change water treatment in Israel and abroad".
November 4, 2015
Israeli Supreme Court rules that Loan Agreements may require a Prospectus
Recently, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that constitutes a precedent: loan agreements which an entrepreneur offered to public investors are tantamount to “securities,” and therefore, require the publication of a prospectus, pursuant to the provisions of the Securities Law.
November 4, 2015
What you need to know about employment contracts
Employee rights in Israel are regulated by a long list of laws, extension orders and collective bargaining agreements. The perception of labor law is that it is primarily protective of employees vis-à-vis employers, and indeed, a basic rule of law states that employee contracts cannot derogate from rights prescribed in laws, extension orders and collective bargaining agreements, but may only supplement them
November 3, 2015
New amendments to the Israeli report regulations
As part of the series of reliefs that the Israel Securities Authority is promoting in order to ease the regulatory burden applied to entities under its supervision, a number of amendments to the Securities Regulations (Periodic and Immediate Reports), 5730 – 1970 were promulgated in the Official Gazette recently.
November 3, 2015
Israel and Australia in tax treaty talks
The Israel Tax Authority is negotiating a treaty for prevention of double taxation with Australia.
Adv. Harel Perlmutter, who specializes in international taxation at the Barnea law firm, believes this progress is "wonderful news. Israel and Australia have excellent economic and political relations, and Israeli investment in Australia has tripled over the past three years. At the same time, no significant talks have yet taken place on a tax treaty between the countries. This lack of a treaty sometimes brings about situations of double taxation and uncertainty, together with problems of withholding tax in trade and business, especially among Israeli companies seeking to operate and invest in Australia, and vice versa."
November 2, 2015
Our Firm will lecture at the Upper Galilee Human Resources Managers Forum
On 11/18/15 our firm will lecture in a Human Resources Managers Forum at Caesarea.
The forum includes CEO’s and HR managers of leading companies and meets once a month. We will give a lecture on the importance of labor agreement.
October 29, 2015
"Dos and don'ts" in employees agreements: recommended modifications in light of Court decisions.
Barnea 's head of Labour department was interviewed by Globes. We described what employers should be including in employee agreements.
October 29, 2015
EU Court invalidates Safe Harbor Arrangement – repercussions for Israel
Recently, an official announcement was issued on behalf of the Law, Information and Technology Authority of the Israeli Ministry of Justice ("ILITA"), as a result of the ruling of the European Union’s Court of Justice invalidating the Safe Harbor Arrangement governing transfers of personal information from Europe to the United States – at this stage, the transfer of personal information from Israel to organizations in the United States on the basis of that arrangement is prohibited.
October 25, 2015
New Securities Regulations – Reporting Negotiations and Delaying Reporting
As part of its endeavor to streamline public reporting and ease some of the regulatory burden imposed on publicly listed companies, the Israeli Securities Authority (ISA) this week introduced an amendment to the Securities Regulations governing periodic and immediate reports. The amendment deals with a number of issues, including reporting on agreement negotiations and the companies’ right to delay public reporting.