The defendant, being a parallel importer, is a "licensed importer" as defined by the Ministry of Transport and in accordance with the procedures of the Ministry of Transport. The parallel importer makes surprise visits, sends an appraiser, checks invoices, and more (paragraph 23 of Raz's affidavit, prov. p. 190, s. 24 - p. 192, s. 10).
Raz further testified that the official importer, Union Motors, has 31 privately owned franchise branches throughout the country. In any event, the consumers did not receive service in those garages from the manufacturer (the plaintiff) or even from the importer himself (Union Motors). Therefore, and as to the defendant's description of the transaction, at most the consumers could have believed that the meaning of the phrase "licensed garage" is that it is a garage licensed by the importer and not an authorized manufacturer - the plaintiff. According to him, it was true that until 2016, before the market was opened to competition, when consumers arrived at service centers, they knew that it was a service center of the official importer. Therefore, from the beginning of its activity, the defendant clarifies, in the trade name it uses and in all its publications, that it is engaged in parallel imports. The business even has signs clarifying that the service center does not belong to Toyota's garage chain.
In his cross-examination, Raz testified that at the beginning of the defendant's activity, the defendant did indeed have signs and publications with the inscription "TOYOTA Rehovot" only, but they were removed in accordance with the legal advice received by the defendants, and this is not the current state of affairs (Prov. p. 131, s. 21 - p. 133, s. 6).
Raz's affidavit was also accompanied by advertisements of various garages that offer service for Toyota vehicles and use the plaintiff's name, its logo and the description of an "authorized garage": the Moti Nissim garage, whose advertisement describes the business as a "Toyota garage"; Toyota Specialist Garage Ltd.; Gil Niv Modiin Service Center, whose advertisement features the logos of various car manufacturers, including the plaintiff, and bears the inscription - "Authorized garage for the handling of all types of vehicles, specializing in Kia, Hyundai and Toyota vehicles"; Zohar Garage whose advertisement is noted - "Maintenance and Draft Garage (Mistake in the Original - S.G.) Zohar Garage ... A licensed garage for 40 years..." (paragraph 82 of Raz's affidavit).
- In addition to the aforementioned factual witnesses, expert opinions were also submitted on behalf of the parties, including consumer surveys on the issue at hand and an analysis of their results:
The plaintiff submitted a consumer survey and an opinion regarding it on behalf of the expert, Ms. Goldberg-Anavi, and the "New Wave" research institute. As appears from the opinion and the expert's testimony, in the first stage of the survey, the respondents were presented with a selected publication by the defendants, which includes the headline "Toyota Rehovot - Parallel Importer Service Center", next to the plaintiff's logo, and below this inscription appears the caption - "TOYOTA Rehovot Parallel Imports" with photos of the service center, details of the services provided, and at the bottom indicate an address, telephone and fax numbers and the domain name (www.toyota-rr.co.il).