MKs defeat bill requiring monopolies that are not publicly traded to post financial statements

Lawmakers vote 38-58 to defeat in a preliminary reading an opposition bill requiring monopolistic corporations not traded on the stock market to post financial statements on their websites.

The bill, sponsored by Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, would have required companies defined as monopolies under the law to both publish financial statements and announce said publication through newspaper advertisements.

The bill’s explanatory notes state that Israel is “experiencing a wave of price increases across various sectors of the Israeli economy, such as food, fuel, housing, and others” while “companies that hold monopolistic power in Israel are using that power to charge excessive prices and to adopt improper business practices in order to increase their profits at the expense of Israeli consumers and at the expense of smaller competitors.”

It argues that Israel’s economy “is characterized by excessive cross-sectoral concentration compared to other markets around the world.”

It contends, “The very fact that a company is a monopoly controlling a market share justifies imposing an obligation to publish its financial statements to the public as part of safeguarding the public interest.”

The coalition opposed the measure despite Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent pledge to free Israelis from exploitation by monopolies. A spokesman for Smotrich does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Justice Minister Levin, who came to respond on behalf of the government, did not address the proposal at all, and instead reads some article by a Channel 14 commentator against the judicial system. This government is not interested in the cost of living and the fundamental problems of the Israeli middle class,” Beliak tells The Times of Israel.