Client updates / Regulation

In October 2019, Israel’s Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs (the National Security Cabinet) decided to devise a mechanism for scrutinizing foreign investments in Israel. At the mechanism’s core is the “Advisory Board for Evaluating National Security Aspects of Foreign Investments.”

The striking innovation in this draft bill is that, upon its enactment, monopolists, even if not declared as such, must publish their financial statements, even if they are not reporting companies.

President Biden’s new executive order increases the restrictions on doing business with Russia.

The new format heralds a reduction in the volume of transactions that require reporting. However, it imposes a far heavier burden on parties to transactions that do require reporting, even for mergers posing no competitive concerns.

Elon Musk declared he would build a Tesla manufacturing factory in Germany in as early as 2019. The factory only obtained a license to operate now. The German regulator, environmental protection organizations, and Russian President Vladimir Putin all played a part.

Israeli companies in the “risk zone” must ascertain if they are subject to sanctions and adopt a significant sanctions compliance plan.

Until now, only foreign funds from a limited number of foreign exchanges have been able to register for trading in Israel. A Ministry of Finance amendment to the relevant regulations seeks to change this.

The economic sanctions the United States has imposed on Russia have possible implications for the Israeli business community.

A boutique hotel in Jaffa was convicted of spilling sewage into the sea without a permit. The court fined the company and two of its employees.

The Israeli Privacy Protection Authority has published recommendations that organizations and companies in all sectors of the economy should appoint data protection officers, along with an instruction kit in this regard. The document was published at the end of January 2022 as part of Privacy Protection Week.

The draft bill is an important step toward achieving the objectives set by the Privacy Protection Authority and the government to increase privacy protection.

A few days ago, the Israeli Competition Authority published for public comments draft public statement 1/22, presenting its position on vertical price maintenance arrangements. The final public statement 1/22 will replace the Competition Authority’s previous statement 2/17 published in 2018.

In an expanded panel of nine justices, Israeli Supreme Court prescribed a set of rules concerning procedures and judicial discretion on the granting of search warrants of computers and cellular devices as part of an investigation. 

The Bank of Israel is proposing to regulate the provision of services to licensed cryptocurrency service-providers so that banks will not be able to sweepingly refuse to provide service and will have to formulate a risk management policy.

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.

The Knesset Finance Committee, headed by MK Alex Kushnir (Yisrael Beitenu), recently approved a mechanism for compensation for the rehabilitation of industrial waste damages caused by Rotem Amfert (of the ICL Group). The committee arrived at the mechanism as part of discussions on the extension of the phosphate mining concession currently granted to the company.

For the first time, companies providing virtual currency services will be required to comply with Israeli anti-money laundering provisions. This follows an amendment to the Prohibition of Money Laundering Order that recently came into effect. The amendment will apply to financial asset service providers obligated to hold a license under the Control of Financial Services Law.

The Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection announced this week its imposition of a pecuniary sanction totaling about ILS 3 million on the leading supermarket chain Shufersal for violations of the Clean Air Law. (In particular, the company violated provisions mandating the reduction and prevention of air pollution from its vehicles).

For the first time, the Israel Competition Authority has opened enforcement proceedings against a monopolist for abuse of its dominant position by charging an unfairly high price. Subject to a hearing, the authority intends to impose a pecuniary sanction of ILS 8 million on MBI Pharma Ltd. and personal sanctions on two officers of the company (of about ILS 600,000 each). The company faces accusations of charging an excessive price for Leadiant, a life-saving drug for CTX patients (an incurable genetic disease), which is marketed by MBI Pharma in Israel.

About seven years ago, one of the worst ecological disasters in Israel’s history occurred. During work to divert an oil pipeline, one of the old pipelines belonging to the government company Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co. Ltd. (EAPC) ruptured near the Evrona Nature Reserve. As a result, about five million liters of crude oil poured from the pipeline into the nature reserve located in the Arava Valley.