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The US-Israel Legal Review 2019 97
relating to international cartels.
A declaration of a breach of the Antitrust Law
by the Antitrust Commissioner serves as
prima
facie
evidence in all legal proceedings, and thus
facilitates class actions against the subject of the
declaration.
• Other prominent causes of action stem from
the law of unjust enrichment, and standard
form contracts which will be discussed in a
subsequent chapter.
• A popular cause of action in recent years is
unlawful invasion of privacy, especially in cases
where information regarding customers is
collected and stored.
Under Israeli law, a class action is adjudicated in
two stages:
• The certification stage – where the court decides
whether to allow the class plaintiff to lead a
class action on behalf of the class they purport
to represent.
• The adjudication of the action itself – which is
similar to the adjudication of any other civil
claim in Israel.
The certification stage begins with the plaintiff
filing a motion to certify the class action. The
motion to certify must demonstrate that the claim
meets the cumulative conditions required in order
for the court to certify the motion:
• The plaintiff must have a personal cause of
action concerning the subject of the motion, and
their cause of action must have a reasonable
chance of success.
• The class action raises material questions of law
or fact that are common to all the members of
the represented class;
• There is a reasonable chance that said mutual
questions will be decided in favor of the
represented class in the adjudication of the
claim.
• A class action is the fair and effectivemechanism
for resolving the dispute.
• There is a reasonable basis to assume that the
petitioners will duly and properly represent the
interests of the represented class.
• There is reasonable basis to assume that
the interests of all class members will be
represented and managed in good faith.
The respondents are entitled to respond to the
motion to certify. The class plaintiff is then entitled
to reply to the respondents’ response.
Following the filing of the parties’ submissions,
the court will usually set a preliminary hearing,
for the purpose of simplifying and expediting the
adjudicationof themotion to certify, or inorder to try
to amicably resolve the dispute. At times, the court
might propose that the parties submit to mediation.
In most cases, should mediations or the
preliminary hearing fail to bear fruit, the court
will schedule evidentiary hearings, wherein the
affiants on behalf of both parties are subjected to
cross-examination (unless the parties agree to
forgo cross-examinations).
The evidentiary hearings are typically followed
by written summations, following which the court
decides on whether to certify the class action.
If the motion to certify is granted, the court will
decide the legal questions that will be adjudicated
and will define the class to be represented by
the class plaintiff. Furthermore, the certified
claim will be considered as the complaint. The
defendants must then submit a statement of
defense, and the complaint will be adjudicated like
any other civil claim.
A court’s decision to certify a class action can be
challenged by leave of appeal filed to the relevant
court of appeal. A decision to deny the motion to
certify, on the other hand, can be appealed by right.
In contrast, the court’s decision in the claim itself
(following the granting of the motion to certify) can
be appealed by right to the relevant court of appeal.
The Class Action Law sets out a unique
procedure for the approval of settlements, which
A court’s decision to certify a class
action can be challenged by leave
of appeal filed to the relevant
court of appeal. A decision to deny
the motion to certify, on the other
hand, can be appealed by right.