Background
Tikva Levi and Liron Davidovitz sought certification of a class action against the American Israeli Gas Company, known as Amisragaz. They alleged that the company violated regulations requiring it to publish on its website a report stating the average price per kilogram of gas and to provide that information to the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.
The Haifa District Court found that Amisragaz had failed to publish the average-price information on its own website and had also failed to transmit information for Migdal HaEmek and Nazareth Illit to the Ministry. It certified a class consisting of residents of those two localities because the information was unavailable to them from either source. It declined to certify a second group of customers elsewhere because the Ministry had published the relevant information on its website. The District Court also limited the certified claim to pecuniary loss, finding an insufficient factual basis for non-pecuniary harm.
The representative plaintiffs appealed the refusal to include the second group and the refusal to certify a non-pecuniary-damages theory. After mediation failed and following further pre-appeal proceedings, the parties agreed that certification should extend to the second group. The plaintiffs left the non-pecuniary-damages issue to the Supreme Court’s discretion.
The Court’s Holding
The Supreme Court partially allowed the appeal based principally on the parties’ agreement. It ordered that the certification application also be approved as to the second group—the customers for whose localities the average-price information had appeared on the Ministry’s website despite Amisragaz’s failure to publish it on its own site. Proceedings concerning that group will continue in the District Court.
The Court dismissed the appeal from the District Court’s refusal to certify the non-pecuniary-damages theory. It noted that the plaintiffs had left the issue to its discretion and had acknowledged that the issue was not central to their certification application. This was a procedural disposition of the certification appeal, not a merits ruling that such damages can never be recovered.
Because the result rested primarily on the parties’ agreement, the Court declined to issue a reasoned judgment on the underlying disputed questions. It preserved the parties’ arguments for the main proceeding and made no order for appellate costs.
Key Takeaways
- The certified proceeding now includes customers outside Migdal HaEmek and Nazareth Illit even where the Ministry’s website carried the average-price information.
- The appeal concerning certification of a non-pecuniary-damages theory was dismissed; the Supreme Court did not decide the ultimate merits of such damages.
- The Supreme Court left the parties’ substantive arguments for the District Court and awarded no appellate costs.
Why It Matters
The ruling materially broadens the class action arising from Amisragaz’s alleged failure to publish mandatory gas-price information on its own website. Customers are not excluded from the certified proceeding solely because the same information was available through the Ministry’s website.
The decision does not supply precedential reasoning on whether ministry publication cures a supplier’s own disclosure failure, because the expanded certification followed the parties’ agreement. Those substantive questions remain open for litigation in the District Court.