Yossi Levy

Yossi Levy is the founding partner of Yossi Levy & Co.

He has extensive experience in the fields of tenders law, large-scale projects in the energy and infrastructure sectors, antitrust law, and international trade. He provides counsel to the firm’s clients both in specific legal cases and in matters relating to broad-based legislation and regulation processes.

Yossi deals with civil and criminal aspects of antitrust law and represents the firm’s clients before the relevant bodies and courts, such the Antitrust Commissioner, the Antitrust Court, the District Courts and the Supreme Court. For example, he has handled cases of claims of a cartel for the marketing of pipes, a cartel for marketing gas, a cartel for marketing envelopes, a cartel for marketing frozen vegetables, and a cartel for textbooks.

Yossi is considered one of the foremost experts in Israel in the field of antitrust and competition law. He advises the firm’s clients in this field, including manufacturers and suppliers of food and consumer goods, banks, supermarket chains, leading players in the energy industry, tourism service providers, and communications providers, including television and cellular telecommunications and professional associations. Furthermore, in the area of legislation and regulation, Yossi represents significant Israeli and international players, providing counsel for all their legal needs regarding international trade. In particular, Yossi represents our clients before the Industrial Cooperation Authority at the Ministry of Economy and Industry, which oversees government procurement in accordance with Israel’s obligations under treaties relating to government procurement as part of the World Trade Organization, as well as proceedings regarding levies and duties, before the relevant authorities and courts.

He provides legal counsel to companies that frequently participate in complex Israeli and international tenders, such as Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Alstom, Von Roll, Electra Group, Elco Group, Afcon Group, Ya’Acobi Brothers Group, and Partner Communications.

Yossi has many years of experience in providing counsel to government tenders committees, such as those of the Israel Airports Authority, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Transport. He also has extensive experience in advising private entities and financing parties which have participated in some of the largest and most significant projects in Israel.
Significant mergers that Yossi has overseen include Electra Consumer Products joint venture with YNET and Electra Consumer Products acquisition of the ACE retail chain. He has also represented Lageen and Caniel, manufacturers of canned goods, in a petition before the Supreme Court regarding the decision of the Antitrust Commissioner and the decision of the Antitrust Tribunal to prevent the merger of the two companies.

Furthermore, Yossi represented Electra Consumer Products before the Antitrust Tribunal concerning the merger request in the field of water bars, between Electra Consumer Products and Eden Springs. He also represented Visa Europe before the Israel Antitrust Authority, the Antitrust Tribunal, and the Supreme Court, in the matter of the cross-clearing arrangement and the cross-commission. He also represented Tnuva, as part of its process in obtaining a declaratory order regarding the dairies in the Golan Heights.
Additionally, he represented one of the largest global conglomerates before the Israel Antitrust Tribunal and the District Court in connection with claims regarding the company’s involvement in an international cartel in the field of electricity. This case is the largest restrictive procedure in the history of the State of Israel.

As part of his job providing legal counsel for numerous commercial bodies, Yossi has been involved in legislation of many Knesset committees proceedings, giving him unique insight into Israel’s legislative processes, particularly regarding the interplay of these processes with the business world. Yossi was involved in legislating the Mandatory Tenders Law and regulations, the amendments to the Restrictive Trade Practices Law regarding class action suits, the Products and Services Regulation Law, the Toll Roads Law, the Standards Law, the Non-Profit Organizations Law, the Banking Law on Credit Cards, the Concentration Law, and many other regulations and laws.

Between 1981 and 1983, Yossi served as the Deputy pf the Minister of Economy at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC. As part of his work, Yossi regularly took part in negotiations on behalf of the State of Israel vis-à-vis US government agencies and private American companies, including negotiations between the Israeli government and the US government regarding the Free Trade Area Agreement between the two countries, as well as Israel’s accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). He took part in formulating the memorandum of understanding between the US Department of Defense and the Israeli Ministry of Defense regarding security and procurement tenders.
Yossi has also dealt with a number of commercial and legal matters relating to American military assistance to Israel. For example, he was involved in negotiations and agreements for the conversion of US military assistance to Israel from loans to grants, as well as in the leasing and sale of Kfir fighter jets to the US Navy. During this period, Yossi dealt with many aspects of the financing and insurance of American exports to Israel via the Export–Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Between 1983 to 1986, Yossi worked at the New York branch of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he was involved in large-scale international transactions, including Transmerica-Sedgwick (worth over $3 billion) and in various transactions related to the field of transportation.

Yossi’s achievements in the field of antitrust and competition law, as well as in project finance, energy, and infrastructure have been recognized by Chambers Global and Legal 500 numerous times.