Search by Practice
Latest Updates / Startups
October 25, 2020
H&M Fined EUR 35 Million for Violating Employee Privacy in Germany
In early October, the Data Protection Authority in Hamburg, Germany announced that the clothing retailer HM committed severe violations of its employees' privacy. Because of these European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) violations, the retailer would pay a fine of approximately 35 million euros.
October 19, 2020
Barnea Represented Canomed in Issuing a Series of Options
Hagit Ross, a partner in our Capital Markets Department, represented Canomed, a company engaged in the cultivation, marketing, and direct sale of medical cannabis, in the issuance of two options series. The issuance is expected to reach a value of NIS 6 million. Canomed is one of the first companies to promote the purchase of pharmacies licensed to sell medical cannabis, thus providing the company direct access to the end consumer. Canomed itself already owns several such pharmacies.
October 15, 2020
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) –The Future of Finance?
What is DeFi?
The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is still the most well-known application of blockchain. However, this technology has since rapidly evolved and expanded in many other areas. The initial hope with Bitcoin was to make both money and payments decentralized and universally accessible. Although Bitcoin failed to live up to this promise, decentralized finance based on blockchain (DeFi), also called open finance, is a fledgling technology with potential. DeFi is operated by decentralized, permisionless (without any central authority) applications, called DApps, built on a blockchain network, most commonly Etherum. Visionaries see this as an open-source alternative to every financial service we use today: from savings, loans, and trades, to insurance and even more, all globally accessible.
October 15, 2020
The Leaked FinCEN Files Harm the Fight against Money Laundering
In mid-September 2020, a series of articles were published by a group of foreign journalists, based on the collection and analysis of over 2,500 leaked documents from FinCEN, the US equivalent of the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority.
The leak of such sensitive information may cause banks and financial institutions to think twice before reporting suspicious financial activity, which would be a mistake. Check out Dr. Zvi Gabbay's op-ed in Calcalist on the subject.
October 15, 2020
Cayman Islands Removed from EU “Non-Cooperative Tax Jurisdiction” Blacklist
In late March 2020 we published a note regarding the de-facto “downgrade” of the Cayman Islands by the European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) as a “non-cooperative jurisdiction” for tax purposes. This was regarded by the international investment community as a “blacklisting” of the Cayman Islands. We noted then that this blacklisting was “a technical result of the delay in the enactment of [certain Cayman Islands] laws, and therefore it is expected the EU will agree to return the Cayman Islands to its previous status and remove it from the list of the list of “non-cooperative jurisdictions” as early as by October 2020.” Indeed on October 6, 2020, ECOFIN removed the Cayman Islands from its “blacklist” of non-cooperative jurisdictions in tax matters.
October 14, 2020
2020’s Wave of IPOs
Since the beginning of 2020, ten initial public offerings (IPOs) have been completed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, for a total of NIS 12 billion. In addition, another 15 companies plan to issue IPOs at a cumulative value of NIS 8 billion by the end of the year. What has changed, why should we pay attention, and what should we watch out for? Five experts in the field, including Micky Barnea, answer all TheMarker’s questions.
October 13, 2020
How to Comply with Local Employment Laws in a World with No Boundaries
As a result of COVID-19, in recent months, many employers have closed their offices and required their employees to work from home, sometimes indefinitely. Employers and employees alike have learned that people no longer need to be present at an office to get work done. This has created another unique situation. Israelis who relocated to countries around the world are now either requesting to return to Israel to be close to their family or being asked by their companies to return home in order to save costs. The question is how can this work for an Israeli employed by an international company with no connection to Israel. What are the legal requirements in such a situation? Netta Bromberg, the head of our Employment Department, has published an article in Calcalist on the subject.
October 13, 2020
Investor Relations Workshop – the Practical Aspects
The Israel Investor Relations Forum of the Israeli Association of Publicly Traded Companies, in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has launched an investor relations course for executives from leading companies. Yesterday’s session focused on regulation, including the rules of the game and how to publicize announcements to international investors.
Dr. Zvi Gabbay’s lecture, entitled “Duty to Report – Practical Implications,” covered how regulation in both Israel and the US can affect a company.
October 2, 2020
Employment: Paid Sick Leave for Time in Quarantine
Yesterday the Court granted the State’s request to extend the period during which employees may use paid sick leave for time in quarantine until October 28, 2020.
As you may remember, the Supreme Court repealed an order from the Ministry of Health, according to which a sweeping medical certificate was given to employees in quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID-19. This repeal was to have entered into effect on September 30, 2020.
October 1, 2020
Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun, and Interest in Israeli Hi-Tech Companies
2014 was a good year for the Israeli-Japanese economic relationship. Viber’s USD 900 million acquisition by Japanese giant Rakuten and the RD cooperation agreement between Japan and Israel marked the beginning of growing interest and a successful relationship between the two distinct countries.
September 30, 2020
Israel’s Second Lockdown: A Guide for Employers
The lockdown entered inְto effect on September 25, 2020, at 14:00, and is expected to continue until October 10, 2020. It is possible at the end of this period the lockdown will be extended. We have prepared an in-depth update for employers on the relevant topics.
September 29, 2020
Jacki Silbermann Lectures on Workers' Rights
Jacki Silbermann, a lawyer from our firm's Employment Department, lectured today on workers' rights in Israel.
The lecture was held as part of a program run by Israel Tech Challenge, an organization established to address the manpower shortage in the Israeli tech industry. Israel Tech Challenge offers intensive training programs for new immigrants who are outstanding graduates from leading universities around the world. The lecture was held as part of a training session for the ITC's Data Science Fellows program.
September 24, 2020
Ariella Dreyfuss to Serve as Judge for IBM Alpha Zone Pitch Day
The IBM Accelerator Pitch Day will be held today. As part of the event, entrepreneurs will present their ideas to a panel of experts. Ariella Dreyfuss will serve on the judges' panel at the event
September 21, 2020
Blockchain and Digital Currencies Regulation
Dr. Zvi Gabbay examines in a short video the topic of digital currencies and recent developments in blockchain regulation in Israel.
September 17, 2020
Updates Regarding the Upcoming Lockdown in Israel
A nationwide lockdown in Israel is to take effect on Friday, September 18, 2020, from 2 p.m., to last for at least 14 days, (the restrictions may be extended, in full or in part, as determined by the Israeli government). While the regulations are currently pending final approval by the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, they are expected to be enacted late tonight or early tomorrow.
September 15, 2020
“It’s A New World Out There – Hedge Funds Navigating COVID”
As part of our legal counsel to the Israel Hedge Funds Association, we are proud to be involved in the IHFA's 8th Annual Conference. The theme of the conference is “It's A New World Out There – Hedge Funds Navigating COVID.”
September 8, 2020
The Ultimate Guide to eDiscovery
This has opened the door to an era of massive discovery of thousands different kinds of documents of between the parties (Word documents, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, emails, photos, and audio files), which was uncommon in the days of paper and binders.
September 7, 2020
Cyber Attack on Tower Semiconductor: What is the Effect on the Company’s Activity?
Tower identified a cyber attack on its systems and released a statement saying it had taken measures to prevent the event’s further development. Yuval Lazi and Anat Even Chen, partners from our firm that represent companies dealing with cyber breaches, were interviewed by Globes on the matter. They explained the attack’s impact on the company, the company’s different alternatives of how now to respond, and when and if a company should report a cyber attack.
September 3, 2020
Israel Securities Authority Publishes Sentencings Guidelines for Administrative Procedures
For the first time, the Israel Securities Authority has published Sentencing Guidelines for Administrative Procedures which contain the considerations guiding its determination of sanctions for individual violators and corporations in an administrative procedure.
August 30, 2020
Employers Are Now Required to Publish Wage Gaps between Women and Men
According to a new amendment to the Male and Female Workers (Equal Pay) Law, employers must publish a yearly report outlining wage gaps between female and male employees. The amendment provides that certain employers must draft an internal yearly report detailing the average salary of their employees and the average wage gaps between men and women within each group of employees in the workplace.