ICA Publication of Pending Transactions
3 April 2025
On March 31, 2025, the Israeli Competition Authority (ICA) started to publish currently reviewed transactions on its website. The ICA’s decision to publicize decisions is an interesting shift that will allow third parties to be more informed on ongoing investigations and to challenge them while the review is ongoing.
What has changed?
To date, while the ICA has seen its review proceedings as public and has never refrained from approaching third parties with regard to transactions, it did not actively publicize which transactions have been submitted.
Under the new policy, the ICA will publish, twice a week (on Mondays and Thursdays), basic information about all merger transactions and requests for exemptions for restrictive arrangements that are submitted to it and are under review.
The published information will appear in a list on the ICA’s website and will include:
- The ICA case number;
- The identity of the parties to the transaction;
- The date of filing;
- The name of the head of the case-handling team at the ICA; and
- A link to the non-confidential chapters of the merger notification forms.
In addition, the ICA will publish a list of transactions whose review was completed during the month preceding the publication. The new policy applies to both ongoing review proceedings involving mergers and restrictive agreements.
Legal Basis Unclear
It is not clear what the source of authority for the publication is. In particular, with regard to the public chapters of the merger notification forms, according to the Economic Competition Regulations (Registry, Publication and Transaction Reporting) state clearly that “cases of exemptions that were granted…” and “merger cases where that Commissioner’s decision was granted” will be open for the public to review in the ICA’s offices and on the ICA’s website. It can be argued that the ICA’s decision to make the forms public prior to granting the Commissioner’s decision exceeds the ICA’s jurisdiction.
Request for Confidentiality
Regardless whether or not the ICA is authorized to publish the details of ongoing transactions, the ICA will allow parties to request that the ICA exclude a transaction from publication for special reasons. According to the ICA’s announcement, the parties must approach the ICA prior to filing to receive this special treatment.
We are at your disposal for any questions or further clarifications.
Antitrust & Competition department
Herzog, Fox & Neeman
