“Israeli importers have sometimes been subjected to unfair pricing and distribution practices”
Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday sent an unusual missive to the head of the US Federal Trade Commission as well as the European Commissioner for Competition, revealed Channel 12.
“Over the past decade, prices in Israel have risen dramatically — not least because exclusive or official importers have taken advantage of the lack of competition in the market and charged excessive prices,” Mr. Liberman.
“Thus I address you as the supreme authority on competition and antitrust, in view of the requests of parallel importers who wish to import products from Europe (and the United States respectively) into Israel” , he continued.
“Due to agreements between manufacturers and official importers, parallel importers face unreasonable difficulties in importing consumer products into the Israeli market,” he said.
“In order to preserve and encourage competition, and to protect consumers from excessive prices and the negative effects of exclusivity agreements”, Avigdor Liberman called on US and European officials to “strengthen the links between the competition authorities of the two sides and deepen cooperation and information sharing”.
He offered to work “together to ensure fair treatment for parallel importers so that they can operate freely without impediments to unfair competition.”
“Furthermore, it is important that competition authorities work together to ensure that competition laws are enforced once morest both importers and exporters so that consumers can enjoy the fruits of free and fair competition. loyal,” he concluded.