Class action and derivative suits

Our firm is one of the leading firms in Israel in the diverse aspects of class actions and derivative actions. A considerable number of the claims that have been filed by the firm have been approved as class actions by the courts, whereby preliminary and breakthrough rulings have been handed down in this new field of law. Many other claims have concluded with settlement arrangements that brought about public benefit. We see this field as a mission. The cases with which the firm chooses to be involved are chosen by us meticulously. Our objective is to conduct justified fights for which we have a sense that genuine wrongdoing has been caused to the public and for which the class action or the derivative action is the appropriate instrument to handle them.

Winning a petition to approve a class action for 5 billion NIS against the Israeli Electricity Company (IEC) within the framework of which the Electricity Company is asked to return to the consumers, by means of future discounts in electricity bills, sums that were paid by the consumers which financed salary irregularities for the company’s employees and pensioners – For the decision of the district court to approve the class action click here; A petition to appeal, filed by IEC to the Supreme Court against the decision to approve the class action, was declined in regard to the salary irregularities cause of action, upholding the class action certification – For the Supreme Court ruling click here; Following the Supreme Court ruling, The IEC and the Israeli Attorney General filed petitions for an additional hearing before an extended panel, while the President of the Supreme Court dismissed these petitions, upholding the decision to approve the class action – For the decision of the President of the Supreme Court declining IEC’s and the Attorney General’s petitions for an additional hearing – click here;

Winning a class action against leading insurance companies in Israel for alltypes of policies that they market, with regard to their policy not to add interest to insurance compensations, in violation of Article 28 of the Insurance Contract Law, designed to prevent the insurance companies’ incentive to delay payments to policy holders – For the Court’s ruling upon the petition for approval click here and click here For the partial final verdict Click here;

Winning a petition to approve a class action against the German corporation Volkswagen and against Champion Motors with regard to damages from the “Dieselgate Affair”; The class action was approved on behalf of 2 classes: One class – all of the population of the State of Israel with regard to the air pollution that was caused by the defendants acts; the Second class – the owners of diesel cars manufactured by Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche in which a defeat devise was installed with regard to the depreciation of the cars, with regard to the unlawful enrichment of the defendants and with regard to non-pecuniary damage. For the Court’s ruling click here

A class action against an insurance company with regard to the pension savings in which the plaintif claims that the insurance company prevented its policy holders who held capital retirement insurance alongside pension retirement insurance, to transfer the pension provisions from the capital policy to the pension policy which bear preferable allowance coefficient, while causing significant damages to the policy holders’ pension savings. The motion to approve the class action was approved by the Court, later on the lawsuit was dismissed and an appeal to the Supreme Court is pending.

Following a petition to approve a class action against Champion Motors and the Volkswagen Group in connection with a failure in the timing system of TSI engines in the Volkswagen Group’s vehicles and damages caused as a result to the engines, the parties reached a settlement which was approved by the court – For the court’s ruling click here;

Following a petition to approve a class action against the leading bread bakeries in Israel – Berman, Angel and Davidovich, in connection with a cartel they carried out among them – and following a mediation procedure held by the parties, the parties reached a settlement which was approved by the court – For the court’s ruling click here;

Following a petition to approve a class action against the International Bank in connection with the collection of extra and unlawful commissions and overpayments from U-Bank customers in respect of activity in securities on foreign stock exchanges, the parties reached a settlement which was approved by the court – For the court’s ruling click here;

Following a petition to approve a class action against General Motors and Universal Motors Israel Ltd. in connection with a defect in the clutch pedal installed in Chevrolet Spark vehicles, the parties reached a settlement which was approved by the court – For the court’s ruling click here;

Following a petition to approve a class action against Bank Leumi for tax over-withholding and misleading representations to the bank’s customers in connection with the tax results of securities transactions, the parties reached a settlement which was approved by the court – For the court’s ruling click here;

Ruling of the Supreme Court on an appeal against a decision of the District Court to decline a petition for a derivative action on behalf of Bezeq against Shaul Alowitz and others, with regard to the financing of the purchase of the control over Bezeq by Shaul Alowitz; Our firm has filed a petition to conduct an additional hearing which was heard by the supreme court; These rulings set important legal precedents in the field of corporate law – For the Court’s ruling in the appeal Click here; for the petition for additional hearing click here; For the Court’s ruling in the petition for additional hearing click here;

A class action against an insurance company with regard to a breach of its enhanced duty of disclosure, in relation to the option of updating the age and/or seniority of the insurance coverage when passing an age level and/or seniority level which awards reduction of the insurance premium. The motion to approve the class action was approved by the Court, later on the lawsuit was dismissed and an appeal to the Supreme Court is pending.

Winning a petition to approve a class action against Gett Taxi in connection with a breach of its obligation to enable application users to take the taxi ride according to the Ministry of Transportation’s price list for intercity travel – For the court’s ruling click here;

Winning a petition to approve a class action against Bezeq International in connection with serious failures detected in an offensive content filtering software which it marketed, allegedly intended to prevent children from being exposed to offensive content while surfing the internet, and in connection with a breach of its duty to inform the customers about their right to receive free of charge filtering software – For the court’s ruling click here; For the settlement agreement that was signed between the parties click here; For the Court ruling to approve the agreement click here.

A petition to approve a class action against Rotem Amfert and Periclase companies, which belong to the ICL Group, due to severe pollution of the Yehuda Group aquifer, Ein Bokek Reserve and Ein Bokek Beach. The District Court ruled that the plaintiffs raised the burden of proof to show that the severe pollution was caused by the contaminants which leaked from the defendants factories, but dismissed the motion to approve the class action due to limitation. An appeal filed by the plaintiffs to the Supreme Court is pending.

Winning a petition to approve a class action against the Israeli Postal Company for unlawful collection of an exaggerated price for fees to verify pledges when transferring ownership of vehicles – For the Court’s ruling click here; Following the approval decision, the class action was conducted on its merits, with the court accepting the claim and ordering the Postal Company to compensate the public – For the court’s ruling click here; An appeal filed by the Postal Company against the judgment of the District Court and a counter-appeal filed by our firm were heard before the Supreme Court. Following the hearing, the parties accepted the Supreme Court settlement proposal, and a consent judgement has been given – For the Supreme Court’s ruling click here;

Winning a petition for the approval of a class action against the communications companies Bezeq International, Netvision and Smile in relation to an unlawful charge for air time on phone cards designed for foreign workers – For the Court’s ruling to approve the class action click here; For the Court’s rulings to approve settlements reached by the parties following the class action approval click here; and click here;

Following a petition to approve a class action against Ryanair, alleging that customers are charged for unnecessary foreign currency conversion from Euro to Dollar while booking flights at the company’s website the Court approved a settlement in which the customers will be compensated for their damages; For the Court ruling click here.

Following a petition to approve a class action against Mitsubishi Motors and Colmobile Ltd. in connection with a serial rust (corrosion) problem that arises in the area of the sealing rubber of the sunroof of Mitsubishi Pajero vehicles and causes damage to the sealing of the sunroof, the Court approved a settlement. For the Court ruling click here.

Winning petitions to approve class actions against cellular companies in relation to obligating customers to pay for text messages sent to them without receipt of their consent – For the Court’s ruling to approve the class action click here; For the Court’s ruling to approve the settlement reached by the parties click here;

Winning a petition to approve a class action against Pelephone Communications Ltd., in connection with reception problems derived from inconsistency between the transmission frequencies used by Pelephone’s cellular network and the frequencies on which some of the cellular phones existing in the market operate – For the Court’s ruling click here; Following the approval decision, the class action was conducted on its merits (while separating between the liability stage and the damages stage), with the court accepting the claim (in the liability stage). The amount of compensation to be paid to the public is currently litigated (in the damages stage) – For the court’s ruling click here;

Winning a petition for approval of a class action against the Hot Telecommunication Company in connection with long waiting times on the response lines to customer inquiries beyond the time limit allowed by law – For the court’s ruling click here; A settlement which was signed by the parties after a long mediation through which Hot will compensate the customers in an amount equal to NIS 70 Million, is pending and waiting for the Court’s approval.

Winning a petition to approve a class action against Bezeq International in which it was determined that Bezeq International violated its obligation under its license to provide a free telephone line for inquiries regarding malfunctions and defects, for customers calling from mobile phone lines – For the court’s ruling click here;

Following a petition to approve a class action against Harel Insurance Company on the merits of the lack of adding the linkage differences to insurance benefits, a settlement was reached by the parties and was approved by the court – For the court’s ruling approving the settlement click here;

A petition to approve a class action against leading insurance companies, on the grounds of their refraining from adding VAT in property policy claims (buildings and vehicles) in cases in which the insured or beneficiary has not yet repaired the damage, contrary to “the Indemnity Principle” and to the Supreme Court ruling; The District Court dismissed the claim and an appeal to the Supreme Court is pending.

A petition to approve a class action against the credit card companies – CAL, Leumi Card, and Isracard – on the grounds of their liability for damages caused to the elderly public as a result of the oppressive actions held against them by telemarketing companies. For the petition to approve the class action click here; The District Court dismissed the claim and an appeal to the Supreme Court will be filed soon.

Winning a petition to approve a class action against the Electricity Company with regard to breach of the legal duty stated in Article 18b of the Consumer Protection Law to provide a free phone line for reporting malfunctions – For the Court’s ruling to approve the class action click here; For the Court’s ruling to approve a settlement reached by the parties click here;

A ruling approving a settlement in a class action filed against Toyota and Union Motors, dealing with a safety defect in the front rack of jeeps of the model Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, which could cause detachment of the front wheel, within the framework of which Union Motors undertook to summon all the vehicle owners for the purpose of carrying out a repair of the defect and compensating the class members for their damages – For the Court’s ruling click here;

Rulings approving settlements in class actions filed against Sano, Hogla and Shufersal with regard to misleading and “greenwash” presentation of bags as “biodegradable”, “environmentally friendly”, “recyclable”, “green” etc. – For the court’s rulings click here; and here;

A ruling approving a settlement in a class action filed against Castro and CAL. with regard to a breach of the transaction cancellation regulations of gift vouchers – For the Court’s ruling click here;

A ruling approving a settlement in a class action filed by IDF career soldiers and their families against “Chever” with regard to collection of membership fees during a period in which the soldiers were not yet accepted as members, within the framework of which a new mechanism was implemented to prevent the occurrence of such phenomena in the future, and in addition to that “Chever” has compensated the class through an academic studies’ scholarship for discharged soldier – For the Court’s ruling click here;

A rulings approving settlements in class actions filed against a few insurance companies with regard to collection of premium in life insurance policies for periods in which the insurance company had no risk, within the framework of which the policies were altered in order to prevent the occurrence of such phenomena in the future, and in addition to that the insurance companies have compensated the class members;

A ruling approving a settlement in a class action filed against a cellular company regarding exclusion of certain types of calls from pre-paid plans, within the framework of which the problem was solved, and the cellular company has compensated the class members – For the Court’s ruling click here;

Winning a petition to approve a class action against an insurance company regarding illegal raising of premiums in property insurance policies – For the Court’s ruling click here;

Winning of two class actions filed against Chemipal concerning misleading representations with regard to breastfeeding creams which it marketed – For the Court’s rulings click hereand here;

Winning a petition to approve a class action against an insurance company regarding the breach of its obligations under the insurance coverage of car radio devices – For the Court’s ruling click here; For the Court’s ruling to approve a settlement reached by the parties click here;