Client updates /  Competition Law

In early September 2025, the Israeli Supreme Court issued its ruling on Youngster v. State of Israel, also known as the “Poland trips cartel case.” In this landmark ruling, the Supreme Court called for the imposition of much harsher sentences for restrictive arrangements between competitors (cartels). It also set a minimum sentence of nine months of incarceration for such offenses.

The Israel Competition Authority (ICA) conducted a thorough investigation of the S. Schestowitz Group, an Israeli company in the food and consumer goods sector, due to suspicions the company operated a cartel in the food industry in violation of the Economic Competition Law and the Law for the Promotion of Competition in the Food and Pharmacy Industries.

The Israel Competition Authority (ICA) announced that as of March 31, 2025, it will begin publishing on its website a list of pending merger transactions and exemption applications for restrictive trade arrangements that are under its review.

The Israeli court’s precedent-setting ruling in Aviad Concrete Industries v. Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises found that Nesher violated provisions of the Economic Competition Law when it gave its major customers significantly higher rebates than those it gave to its small customers, thereby harming competition.

The amendment is part of the government’s efforts to bring down the cost of living by increasing competition in the import sector. However, the amendment also imposes considerable restrictions on direct importers.

As part of a series of measures to combat the cost of living, the Israel Competition Authority’s Director General is taking broad law enforcement measures for the first time against major food suppliers for violations of the Food Law. Inter alia, the Food Law prohibits food suppliers and retailers from engaging in various commercial arrangements that could prevent small suppliers or retailers from competing. 

This is not the first time the Israel Competition Authority has imposed sanctions on companies that fail to respond adequately to its demands for data. However, this is the highest sum ever imposed for such a violation and approaches the maximum the ICA’s Director General may impose in this regard.

The Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Competition Authority are pushing to introduce a plan in the annual Economic Arrangements Law that would impose significant restrictions on importers and suppliers of major brands, with the aim of reducing concentration and increasing competition in the food and toiletries market in Israel.

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.

Six months after the amendment to the Economic Competition Law took effect, the Competition Authority published its position regarding the circumstances in which even an entity with less than a 50% market share may be deemed a “monopoly holder.”