Antitrust law in Israel is rooted in common law. Israeli practice amended and adapted common law to particulars of the legal and business environment in Israel.
Israeli antitrust law prohibits restrictive arrangements, controls mergers and monopolies.
Restrictive arrangements
Israeli law prohibits arrangements entered into by business entities or individuals, according to which at least one of the parties restricts itself in a manner liable to eliminate or reduce the business competition between it and the other parties to the arrangement, or any of them, or between it and a person not party to the arrangement. The restraint may relate to the price, the profit to be obtained, division of all or part of the market, and the quantity, quality or type of assets or services in the business.
Israeli law mitigates the generality of the prohibition by allowing restrictive arrangements such as arrangements and restraints established by law, arrangements and restraints resulting from the use of intellectual property rights, arrangements between a holding company and its subsidiary, arrangements relating to real estate property. Restrictive arrangements may also be granted a temporary permit or an exemption, under specific conditions.
Monopolies
Originally, Israeli law allowed the General Director of the Antitrust Authority to declare a monopoly, to oblige a monopolist to submit an application for approval of a standard terms contract under the Standard Terms Contracts Law, to prohibit a monopolist to manufacture, import or sell an asset or provide a service unless it conforms to the requirements of the Standard a in accordance with the Standards Law. Unreasonable refusal was also prohibited. Afterwards, the abuse of position prohibition was added and the powers of the Antitrust Authority were expanded.
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