Clients updates / Class Actions

The uptrend in warning letters, enforcement proceedings, and motions to certify class actions against manufacturers and importers obligated to achieve defined recycling targets by virtue of the Processing of Packaging Law is likely to intensify, inter alia, because filing such motions does not involve paying a fee.

A new Israeli Supreme Court ruling states that, in particular instances, Israeli law will apply to engagements and agreements, even if those agreements stipulate that foreign law applies to them. In its decision, the court also issued several significant rulings that could affect commercial relations, in instances when cogent provisions of law apply.

The Tel Aviv District Court recently reduced agreed settlements between respondents and petitioners in motions to certify class actions alleging website accessibility violations. It is thus signaling to serial petitioners that filing a motion to certify a class action is a last resort and that they must first complain to the website owner.

At the conclusion of a proceeding conducted over about two years, an Israeli court recommended that the class plaintiffs withdraw their actions in light of the legal difficulties and since there is no reasonable possibility that the legal questions will be  ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs accepted the court’s recommendation, and the court dismissed in limine 66 class actions.

The Tel Aviv District Court recently allowed a motion to certify a class action against the Volkswagen Group and its importer in Israel, Champion Motors Ltd. The class action focuses on the Dieselgate scandal, after an investigation discovered that Volkswagen installed emissions management software in its diesel-powered vehicles that falsifies air pollution data.

In December 2021, the Jerusalem District Court dismissed two motions to certify a class action against the leading dairy manufacturer in Israel, Tnuva, for charging excessive prices. Both the motion and the dismissal are part of an intense dispute for years. The dispute revolves around whether the prohibition of a monopolist charging an “unfair” price applies to charging excessive fees. In 2014, the director-general of the Competition Authority published a public statement on the prohibition of excessive pricing by a monopoly.

Many class action proceedings end in settlement. The settlement agreement is designed, inter alia, to facilitate an efficient and fair resolution to the proceeding, in a manner that also provides certainty to the parties. Essentially, it “takes on the risk” for all parties involved—the class action plaintiffs and their legal representation, the class, and the defendants. Settlement certification by the court constitutes res judicata, and ensures the preclusion of repeated claims regarding the subject of the settlement.

Dozens of motions were filed in recent weeks to certify class actions against some of the most well-known and leading publicly traded companies and reporting corporations in Israel. These motions to certify class actions are similar in nature (apart from the different defendants) and most were filed by the same plaintiffs-petitioners and through the same attorneys.

In December 2019, an expanded panel of seven Supreme Court justices published a precedential and important decision considering the issue of whether a party seeking to file a class action suit against a government agency must send a demand letter to the agency in advance of filing.

At the end of November 2017, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset approved a revised draft bill to amend the Courts Regulations (Fees), whereby parties filing a motion to certify an action as a class action will be charged a court fee.

The Tel Aviv District Court approved an action as a class action filed by the minority shareholders of Delek Energy Systems Ltd. against its controlling shareholder and officers of the company.