Insights & News /  Internet

Purchasers of Apartments in Afula were surprised to receive a call from a mortgage advisory company,  despite not having given the contractor prior consent to transfer their data to such company. The Ministry of Construction and Housing commented on this issue that "if necessary, we will sharpen the guidelines’’ The Privacy Protection Act regulates the use of personal information databases and providing this information to third parties without the individual's consent is illegal. 

The Israeli newspaper TheMarker interviewed our head of internet department, to discuss the new guidelines issued by the Israeli Tax Authority, according to which shall begin collecting  VAT and income taxes from foreign companies which conduct substantial business over the internet in Israel, such as Facebook and Google.

In a letter circulated yesterday to companies engaged in the binary options industry, ISA informed these companies that it has decided to completely halt binary option trading in Israel. 

In recent months the ISA has  stopped the activity of many algo-trading companies, because their businesses constitute investment portfolio management without a license required by law. In an opinion article in Bizportal,  Adv. Moran Bickel argues that the ISA should create a specific regulatory system in order to assess algo- trading companies.

We participated in a roundtable held by Globes IT magazine. The subject of the event was Internet law, Cyber Protection, Privacy Information and the effects of technology. (P. 28-29)

As part of our cooperation with MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel, our office will take part in an Angel's Investor workshop consisting of 6 meetings. Adv. Micky Barnea, Adv. Yuval Lazi and Adv Ariella Dreyfuss will lecture at the workshop.

Away from the media spotlight and public awareness, Israel has become a global player in the field of online gambling. Employees are able to make a career and earn good money in this field - but they do not always tell people what they do because of the negative image of this industry. Our Head of Internet department at Barnea was interviewed by TheMarker for their Gambling Market Special Report.

Our firm was chosen as one of the three best Israeli law offices providing services in the gaming and gambling industry by the InterGame 2016 directory. The InterGame is the ultimate portal for the coin-op amusement, casino and online gaming industries.

Increasing competition in the online gambling industry is motivating leading players in the industry to try to find new sources of income.

Following the declaration by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, regarding the possibility of opening for the first time of a casino in Israel, the exclusive Gambling Compliance Magazine interviewed us. Our Head of Internet Department states that: "There is a higher probability for this to succeed this time. The reason for that being that due to the economic situation in Israel (and generally in the world), the government is seeking additional sources of income, which a casino could bring."

In 2014, the online gambling industry faced many challenges, mainly due to regulatory issues but also due unsatisfactory results in several jurisdictions with the US States of Nevada and New Jersey probably the most disappointing in this respect. According to our head of gambling practice, 2015 will probably be challenging as well. One reason for this is that the new legislation in England, which came into effect towards the end of 2014, requiring any online gambling operator offering is services in England to operate under an online gambling license issued by the local Gambling Commission, as well as pay a substantial gambling tax. For the full article, please Click here

Recently, one of the most popular Facebook pages in Israel, by the name of "Twitting Statuses", was suspended and later permanently removed by Facebook. The reason for such action was that the operator of that page (the "Operator"), so it is understood, was paid to publish commercial content on that Facebook page, without going through the Facebook advertising system and without providing any due disclosure that such content was indeed paid for. It appears that the Operator offered various media packages to advertisers fixing prices based on different kinds of exposure on this page. After this manner of operation became public knowledge, Facebook suspended the page and a few days after that permanently removed it. Facebook stated that these actions were taken because the Operator had breached Facebook's terms and conditions. According to Facebook, the Operator received warnings about his manner of operation, but ignored them. Despite the Operator's efforts, which included going public with Facebook's actions and publishing a letter sent from him to the head of the Israeli office of Facebook, his efforts to change Facebook's decision were unsuccessful. Without getting into the legal spat between Facebook and the Operator, this turn of events proves the importance of following the terms and conditions of Facebook. All of the work and effort of the Operator will probably go down the drain, causing him substantial financial loss and diminution in value in connection with this Facebook page. And this is not something to trifle with - according to newspaper reports, the Operator, prior to this turn of events, asked to receive NIS 10,000,000 (approx. USD 2.5M) for the page and had 700,000 followers (and claimed to reach exposure of millions). Given the fact that this kind of business lives or dies on the existence of the Facebook page, and that it operates on a platform owned by a third party, it goes without saying that where the business is intended to generate followers and create value without adhering to the terms and conditions of the third party owned platform, it is reasonable to believe that sooner rather than later, such value will dissolve into thin air. Further,  where there are third party investors that are involved in such a business, this could establish a cause of action against the entrepreneur who used their investments for purposes of the business; where such a core fundamental element of the business is questionable, there is a possibility that the investors will seek to recover damages from the entrepreneur. So, entrepreneurs – pay close attention to the rules of any third party you rely on for the purpose of creating value for your business, failing which , you could expose yourself to financial difficulties on a number of fronts.

360Law website published our Overview Of Gambling Law In Israel. In our overview we provide an analysis of  current laws in Israel and discusses innovations and possible future developments therein.

Barnea, IVC, and SpotOption invite you to "Online Financial Trading NOW" Conference. The conference will deal in opportunities, challenges, innovations and trends in the Online Financial Trading Industry. The event will be held on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 08:30-13:00 at Meirhoff Gallery, Dovnov 8, Tel Aviv.

Micky Barnea, managing partner of Barnea, and Koby Simana, CEO of IVC Online, in a joint interview focused on the area of financial trading platforms. In the interview Micky discusses the effects of the new Israeli regulations pertaining to the activities of trading platforms. These regulations will come into effect on May 26, 2015.

Senior industry figures from a host of FX companies met top venture capital investors in Tel Aviv, Israel today at the conference hosted by Barnea and the IVC. To read more, please click here

Micky Barnea, Managing Partner and Head of the Technology department published an article in the IVC annual high-tech book. In the article, Micky asserts that although online financial trading is focused on financial tools, the ability to innovate is a key ingredient in the success of online financial trading companies. As such, they should be treated as high-tech companies.

We represented the leading gambling company, Stride Gaming plc, in its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of InfiApps Limited. Stride Gaming plc, which is listed on AIM, acquired the entire issued share capital of InfiApps Limited, a profitable Israeli internationally-focused mobile social gaming company. The total consideration payable for the acquisition is up to $39.2 million. Of this, an initial consideration of US$21.2 million in cash will be payable on completion, together with an additional earn-out consideration of up to $18 million payable in cash, determined by the EBITDA generated by InfiApps in the two years following completion of the acquisition.

Barnea's partner and head of internet department, published an article in the InterGaming Law magazine, the specialist international gaming law magazine: Casino in Israel - could the notion materialize.

Barnea's partner and head of internet department published an article (in Hebrew) in the Calcalist financial newspaper, regarding a recent Israeli court decision that compensated a plaintiff for defamation published against him on Facebook. Dr. Baruch criticizes the court's reasoning, that sought to place less importance and magnitude in respect of defamation published on Facebook, compared to defamation published via other avenues. Dr. Baruch argues, as outlined in the article, that defamation published on Facebook should be treated in the exact same manner in which any other published defamation is treated.