The antitrust and competition group at Yigal Arnon & Co. has one of the most highly regarded teams in its field in Israel and has been consistently ranked 'top tier' by both domestic and international legal directories for over 20 years. Our competition group handles all aspects of competition law, particularly focusing on antitrust litigation and ongoing advice on complex competition and regulatory matters.
We regularly appear before all Israeli court and judicial instances and represent, among others, defendants in criminal proceedings, including in investigations conducted by the Israel Competition Authority, respondents in administrative proceedings for the imposition of financial sanctions, respondents in class actions (both domestic and multinational companies that are alleged to be part of cartels), parties to major commercial disputes dealing with causes of action stemming from antitrust law, as well as parties in proceedings before the Antitrust Tribunal.
Our clients also retain our services for ongoing advice on matters dealing with competition law, sector specific regulation, approval of complex M&A transactions involving competition aspects and requests to approve restrictive arrangements and ongoing legal advice regarding the Law for the Promotion of Competition in the Food Sector and the Law for Promotion of Competition and Reduction of Concentration. We also represent before the Supervisor of Trade Levies in anti-dumping proceedings and provide legal advice on anti-dumping laws.
We provide legal services to leading Israeli and multinational corporations in a wide range of sectors, including communications, high-tech, retail, food, pharmaceuticals, energy, traditional industry, banking and insurance, real estate, transportation and more. Lawyers from the group serve in the National Antitrust Committee of the Israel Bar, in various committees nationwide and in other organizations.
The firm's antitrust and competition services include:
Our firm has vast experience with antitrust related criminal proceedings and white collar offences. Throughout the years, the firm has been involved in the majority of antitrust related criminal cases that had taken place in Israel and has taken a part in all of the important and high profile cases, including those in the gas, food, technology and construction sectors, to name a few.
We act for companies and for officers and executives holding senior positions throughout all stages of the criminal proceedings, from the investigation phase thorough hearings, detention on remand, money laundering busts, criminal trials, to appeals to the Supreme Court.
We serve our clients from their first interrogation at the Israel Competition Authority offices and remain closely involved at all stages of the investigation. We represent our clients in detention hearings, pre-indictment hearings, trials, plea bargains, sentencing and appeals. Moreover, we represent our clients before parole boards in order to achieve an early release from prison.
We represent companies and executives in financial sanctions proceedings, agreed orders, approval for restrictive arrangements, hearings prior to taking actions by the Commissioner and appeals against the Commissioner's decisions in these contexts. Our firm represents in all the various necessary approval procedures before the Competition Commissioner and before the Competition Tribunal.
In recent years, our firm has represented giants in the food, retail, communications, advertisement and other sectors.
Our firm has earned great repute with class actions, especially dealing with competition law, which have become a common phenomenon is recent years, and acts for both local and multinational companies, both in claims dealing with domestic or global cartels as well as illegal conduct by monopolies. Our firm has particular expertise in representing defendant companies in such proceedings, including, among others, class actions based on competition law causes such as excessive pricing.
Our professional team has amassed extensive experience in antitrust and consumer related class actions. In the framework of these proceedings, we represent the largest retailers in the market, communications companies, multinational consumer goods and electronics manufacturers, and many others.
We advise trade unions and prepare internal compliance programs for trade unions and commercial companies. Also, we provide ongoing consultation on competition law, advise on the permitted and prohibited under the law, provide legal advice and opinions for engagement in commercial agreements such as distribution agreements, supplier, consumer and agent agreements, joint ventures, franchising, research and development, consult trade unions, and much more.
Our firm provide legal advice on the antitrust aspects of M&A transactions and has been constantly involved in the largest, most complex M&A transactions that had taken place in Israel. Thanks to the team's extensive experience and successful track record, we are often retained to advise and assist with obtaining M&A approvals in instances which raise competition law related challenges, at times working closely with the legal team that advise on the actual transaction.
In this context, our team specializes in handling local and cross-border mergers, providing consultation with respect to merger notification requirements, assisting with notification and providing legal support until antitrust approval is obtained. We offer antitrust consultation in various merger transactions, including company mergers, the purchase of assets or rights and long-term licenses or leases. In recent years, our firm has obtained countless approvals for mergers in Israel of giant multinationals in the tech, pharmaceutical, communications, food, energy and other sectors.
Anti-dumping laws touch on restrictive trade practice regulation and are meant to prevent the sale of products by multinational companies at especially low prices in the Israeli market, in a way which is likely to harm Israeli industries. Over the years, we have gained vast experience in acting for domestic and international companies in anti-dumping proceedings under the Trade Levies and Safeguard Measures Law.
