Key Israeli statutory provisions in English (unofficial translation)

"dealer" (עוסק) – a person who sells an asset or provides a service in the course of business, including a manufacturer;

"consumer" (צרכן) – a person who buys an asset or receives a service from a dealer in the course of the dealer's business, for use that is mainly personal, domestic or family use;

"transaction" (עסקה) – the sale of an asset or the provision of a service;

"continuing transaction" (עסקה מתמשכת, section 13C(a)) – a transaction for the purchase of goods or services on a continuing basis, including any change in or addition to the transaction that does not constitute a new transaction, all whether the transaction is for a fixed period or for an indefinite period, and excluding a transaction for the supply of gas between a gas consumer and a gas supplier.

[Subsections (a) and (b) have been repealed.]

(c) A contract in a continuing transaction shall end within three business days of the day on which a cancellation notice was delivered in accordance with section 14T, and, if the cancellation notice was delivered by registered mail, within six business days of the day on which it was handed in for dispatch, all unless the consumer specified a later date in the cancellation notice (in this paragraph – the cancellation date); on the cancellation date the dealer shall stop supplying the goods or the services, and shall not charge the consumer payments for goods or services provided after the cancellation date.

(d) Where a consumer delivered a cancellation notice in accordance with section 14T, and the dealer continued to charge the consumer payments in respect of the continuing transaction because of circumstances of which the dealer did not know and was not required to know, or which the dealer did not foresee and was not required to foresee, and the cancellation of the continuing transaction was impossible because of those circumstances, subsection (c) and section 31A(a)(2b) shall not apply for as long as those circumstances existed.

(a) Where a consumer had a right to cancel a transaction under this Law or under a contract, the dealer shall allow the consumer to cancel the transaction by a cancellation notice that the consumer delivers to the dealer in any of the ways listed below, in accordance with the contact details that the dealer gave the consumer under subsection (d) for that way of cancelling (in this section – cancellation notice):

(1) orally – by telephone, or by an oral notice at the place of business, unless it was prescribed under the law that the transaction is to be cancelled by written notice;

(2) by registered mail;

(3) by electronic mail;

(4) by facsimile, if the dealer has one;

(5) through the internet – in a transaction that may be entered into with a consumer by that means;

(6) by any other means prescribed by the Minister.

(b) In respect of a transaction that may be entered into with a consumer through the internet, a dealer shall create, on the main page of its website, a dedicated link through which a cancellation notice may be sent in accordance with subsection (a)(5), placed prominently and clearly.

(c) In a cancellation notice the consumer shall state their name and identity number and, if the cancellation notice was delivered orally as provided in subsection (a)(1), an additional identifying detail, if one was agreed with the consumer at the time of contracting; the Minister, with the approval of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Knesset, may prescribe provisions on further details that a consumer must give in a cancellation notice.

[Subsections (d) to (g), on the dealer's duty to disclose the ways of cancelling and on exceptions, are not translated here.]

(a) Where a transaction was entered into between a dealer and a consumer, and the dealer breached, in connection with that transaction, one of the provisions listed below, the court may award, for that breach, compensation that is not dependent on damage (in this section – exemplary damages), in an amount not exceeding 10,000 new shekels:

[Paragraphs (1) to (2a) are not translated here.]

(2b) a consumer asked to cancel a continuing transaction by a cancellation notice under section 14T – and the dealer continued to charge the consumer payments in respect of the transaction, contrary to section 13D(c);

[Paragraphs (2b1) to (8) are not translated here.]

(b) A claim for exemplary damages under subsection (a) shall not be filed against a dealer until the consumer has sent or delivered a request under that subsection, in writing, including by electronic communication; for the purposes of paragraph (2b), it is sufficient that the consumer delivered a cancellation notice under section 14T(a), other than under paragraph (1) of that subsection; for the purposes of paragraph (4), it is sufficient that the consumer cancelled the transaction as provided in sections 14A(c), 14C(c) and 14C1(c).

(c)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the court may award for a breach referred to in that subsection exemplary damages in an amount exceeding 10,000 new shekels but not exceeding 50,000 new shekels, if it finds that the breach is a repeated breach or a continuing breach, or that it was committed in aggravating circumstances as defined in section 23A(b).

[Paragraph (c)(2), which defines "repeated breach" and "continuing breach", and subsections (d) to (f) are not translated here.]

"wages" (שכר עבודה) – including payments for holidays, productivity and overtime, and other payments due to the employee by reason of the work and in the course of the work;

"delayed wages" (שכר מולן) – wages that were not paid by the determining day;

"the determining day" (היום הקובע) – the ninth day after the date for payment of the wages or the pension under sections 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 16(b), as the case may be […];

"linkage differentials" (הפרשי הצמדה), for a given period – differentials of linkage to the consumer price index published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the rate of the rise of the index from the index last published before the beginning of the period to the index last published before the end of the period.

(a) There shall be added to delayed wages the higher of the following amounts (hereinafter – delayed-wage compensation):

(1) for the first week after the date for payment of the wages – one twentieth [5%] of the delayed wages, and for each week or part of a week after that – one tenth [10%] of the delayed wages;

(2) linkage differentials for the period from the date for payment of the wages until the day of their payment, plus 20% of the total of the delayed wages and those linkage differentials for each month in that period; for part of a month, the 20% addition shall be paid proportionally.

(b) Delayed-wage compensation shall be part of the wages for all purposes, except for the purposes of this section.

The Regional [Labour] Court may reduce delayed-wage compensation or cancel it, if it is satisfied that the wages were not paid on time because of a bona fide error, or because of a circumstance over which the employer had no control, or as a result of a dispute as to the very existence of the debt which, in the opinion of the Regional Court, has substance, provided that the amount that was not in dispute was paid on time.

(a) A person who has worked for one year continuously – and, in the case of a seasonal employee, two seasons in two consecutive years – for one employer or at one place of work, and was dismissed, is entitled to receive severance pay from the employer who dismissed [that person].

"season", for the purposes of this Law – three consecutive months in a year in which [the employee] worked at least 60 days.

[Subsection (b), on an employee who moved from one place of work to another of the same employer where the employers at the current place of work changed, is not translated here.]

(a) The rate of severance pay is: one month's wages for each year of employment, for a salaried employee with an employer or at the same place of work, and two weeks' wages for each year of employment, for a wage employee as aforesaid; part of a year after a year of employment entitles the employee to proportional severance pay, and in the case of a seasonal employee, part of a year entitles [the employee] to proportional severance pay even if the periods of employment do not add up to a year. For this purpose –

"salaried employee" (עובד במשכורת) – an employee the main part of whose remuneration for work is paid on the basis of a month or of a longer period;

"wage employee" (עובד בשכר) – an employee who is not a salaried employee.

(b) The Minister of Labour may, after consultation with the Minister of Finance and with the approval of the Labour Committee of the Knesset, increase by regulations the rate of severance pay for a wage employee; such regulations may be general or by branches of work.

A payment to a provident fund, to a pension fund or to a similar fund shall not take the place of severance pay unless it was so provided in the collective agreement that applies to the employer and the employee, and to the extent so provided, or unless such a payment was approved by the Minister of Labour, and to the extent so approved.

(a) Where an accused has been convicted of an offence under this Law, the court may order the accused to pay the injured person compensation not exceeding 50,000 new shekels without proof of damage; an order to pay compensation under this subsection is as a judgment of that court given in a civil action of the person entitled against the person liable under it.

(b) In a trial for a civil wrong under this Law, the court may order the defendant to pay the injured person compensation not exceeding 50,000 new shekels, without proof of damage.

(c) In a trial for a civil wrong under this Law in which it was proven that the defamation was published with intent to harm, the court may order the defendant to pay the injured person compensation not exceeding twice the amount stated in subsection (b), without proof of damage.

(d) A person shall not receive compensation without proof of damage under this section more than once for the same defamation.

(e) The amounts stated in this section shall be updated on the 16th of each month, according to the rate of rise of the new index compared with the base index; for the purposes of this subsection –

"index" – the consumer price index published by the Central Bureau of Statistics;

"the new index" – the index of the month preceding the month of the update;

"the base index" – the index of September 1998.

(a) An employer who wishes to dismiss an employee shall give the employee advance notice of dismissal, in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

(b) An employee who wishes to resign from employment shall give the employer advance notice of resignation, in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

(c) A notice under this section shall be given in writing and shall state the day on which the notice is issued and the day on which the dismissal or the resignation, as the case may be, takes effect, all in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

A salaried employee is entitled to advance notice of dismissal, as follows:

(1) during the first six months of employment – one day for each month of employment;

(2) during the period from the seventh month of employment until the end of the first year of employment – six days, plus two and a half days for each month of employment in that period;

(3) after the first year of employment – one month.

A wage employee is entitled to advance notice of dismissal, as follows:

(1) during the first year of employment – one day for each month of employment;

(2) during the second year of employment – 14 days, plus one day for each two months of employment in that year;

(3) during the third year of employment – 21 days, plus one day for each two months of employment in that year;

(4) after the third year of employment – one month.

Sections 3 and 4 shall apply, with the necessary modifications, to advance notice of resignation.