The company for the sale of plumbing and ceramics “Hezi Bank” reached a non -judicial agreement as part of a representative claim for manipulations with prices, and will pay 10 million shekels.
A lawsuit against the main players in the Israeli ceramics market on the conscious misleading of consumers by publishing obviously overstated prices with the provision of a large discount from them was filed back in 2012.
In 2019, the Tel Aviv District Court agreed to accept the claim for consideration as a representative. In 2023, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal of seven companies controlling the Israeli Plumbing and Ceramics market for the adoption of a representative lawsuit against them.
The court ruled that the practice of establishing a deliberately overstated price and presenting the subsequent reduction to the real price as a discount is illegal. In its decision, the Supreme Court relied, among other things, to the position of the legal department of the consumer protection department.
“The price indicated on the product should reflect the usual value of the goods by which it is sold under normal conditions, and the discount means a decrease from the usual price. Therefore, the enterprise indicating the prices is obviously higher than those at which the goods are usually sold, and representing a decrease in such a price as a” discount “, not only misleads the buyer about the price of the goods, but also deceives it, which he” won “”, – it is said, – it said. in the decision of the Supreme Court.
Companies, in turn, argued that there is no such thing as a “ordinary” price, since as a rule, customers buy a “set of goods”, and that the price in each case is determined for this kit, which is expressed in a discount from a price list, which is only the starting point. However, judges Yael Wilner, Noah Solberg and Uzi Fogelman rejected this position, noting that in an ordinary bachelor, people also buy a “set of goods”, which does not interfere with the presence of the usual price included in this set of goods.
“Hezi Bank” is the second company that has reached the extrajudicial agreement on the claim. Earlier, Shaish Aloni paid 13 million shekels.
Due to the problematicity of the search for the affected ones from the actions of the company, the Khezi Bank compensation will be transferred to the Fund for the distribution of compensation in representative claims, which will send them to the goals related to the victims of the war and the restoration of injured settlements.