On January 1, 2019, the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) approved the proposed Restrictive Trade Practices Law (Amendment No. 21), 5759 – 2019 (“the Amendment“).
The Amendment expands the definition of the term “monopolist” under Israeli law, in a way that from now on a “monopolist” is not only those who have a market share of more than 50% in the supply or purchase of a product or service, but also anyone who has a “significant market power” in relation to the supply or purchase of an asset or service (even if it does not hold a market share above 50%).
Against the background of the aforesaid, on February 3, 2019, the Israeli Competition Authority published for the public’s comments a draft opinion regarding the manner of examining the existence of “significant market power”. In the draft circular, the Israeli Competition Authority tries to define the concept of “significant market power”. Comments to the draft may be submitted to the Israeli Competition Authority by March 11, 2019.
In this context, it should be noted that at a conference held on March 4, 2019, the Israeli Competition Commissioner noted that “sectors that were immune to monopoly enforcement to date, because they did not hold a market share of more than 50%, may find themselves exposed to enforcement procedures” under the new definition of “monopolist”, and added that examples for this includes “banking, retail, fuel and gas sectors.”
Please find the full legal update here (Hebrew)
