"It's some kind of slippery slope that we unfortunately kept bending the hand of uh, flames and we flowed with the hand bending and I say in retrospect oh, that was a mistake, it wasn't right, oh to agree to all the requests of this slippery slope. And that was part of the slippery slope and my answer was, if you want to keep your distributors in the market then oh, okay, we, we're going to bend our hand a little bit but everything has to be in front of us [...] So the idea was not to lose too much of what, of the power that, we lose once we, allow such extraordinary distributors" (p. 262, paras. 3-17).
Navot's testimony revealed that negotiations were conducted between the parties regarding the excluded distributors and an agreement was given, even if not happily.
Q: [...] When Lehavot comes to Danan with a list of excluded distributors, Shalhavot Distributors says, listen, these are companies that are not willing to work with Danan. There's nothing you can do about it. We ask them to keep selling and you will get the rest. What was Danan's reaction?
A: That it's against the contract and that it doesn't allow us to enter the market.
Q: And, therefore, you insisted that it not happen, or did you end up swallowing the pill and saying we'd do it?
A: [...] Both. We insisted that this not happen, we managed to remove some of the distributors from the list, we managed to transfer some of the distributors to us, we managed to say that until a certain time, it was for a period and in a certain place, so oh, we swallowed the pill.
Q: I get it.
A: And that was a mistake,
Q: And agree with me,
A: Swallow this pill."
- 276, paras. 12-27.
- The then CEO of Danan, who was asked about the letter of December 29, 2016 and his thoughts at the time, He believed that Speaker of "Background Noise of a Salesman [Dudi - T.A. [which is trying to protect his field", because Dudi tried to "inflate" the objections that were expected, when "the business logic was in front of everyone's face, it was not a question here, so it was great that Dudi opposed", and that the move was supposed to be "a logical strategic leap. So it's nonsense, what is it, he didn't agree to buy, well, there are a lot of customers who don't agree even today." He testified that it was agreed that meetings would be held with the relevant distributors in order to hear and understand their objections and concerns, perhaps to improve the terms for them a little and "close with them" (p. 374, 20 - p. 375, 16).
At the same time, it was also confirmed in his testimony that consent was given to the exclusion.