| Central-Lod District Court |
| Class Action 60843-12-23 Avishai v. NHK Spring Co., Ltd. et al. |
| Request Number:20 | |||
| Before | The Honorable Judge Carmit Ben-Eliezer
|
||
|
Requesting |
Dror Avishai By Attorney Dr. Uri Baram |
||
|
Against
|
|||
| The Applicant’s Respondents in the Heresy Motion |
1. NHK Spring Co., Ltd – Invention Not Yet Made
2. TDK Corporation By Adv. Hagai Doron, Uriel Prinz, and Gitit Levin Greenberg |
||
Decision
- Before me is the application of respondent 2, TDK Corporation (hereinafter: the Respondent or: TDK), which was filed by virtue of a limited power of attorney, to deny the authority of this court to hear the proceeding and alternatively to determine that the Israeli forum is not the proper forum to discuss it.
As part of the main proceeding, a motion to certify a class action (hereinafter: the Motion to Certify) was filed against TDK and another respondent, concerning components known as Hard Disk Drive Suspension Assembly (HDDSA), which are components integrated into hard drives, which are sold in Israel and around the world both as a stand-alone product and when integrated into another product (desktop or laptop, game consoles, etc.). The application for approval was submitted, inter alia, on behalf of anyone who purchased in Israel between the years 2003-2017 (the period of the claim) the assemblies or hard disk drives in which the assemblies were integrated. According to the Applicant, the Respondents, who are Japanese companies that manufacture the assemblies, were a party to an international cartel in which, inter alia, they coordinated prices, quantities and tenders, transmitted sensitive information on prices, quantities, customers, etc., carried out the division of markets and customers, and coordinated the "liquidation" of a competitor. In the application for approval, it was claimed that the cartel lasted at least 14 years until it was exposed by law enforcement authorities around the world. Following the exposure of the cartel, many proceedings were taken against the respondents around the world, and they admitted, were convicted, and in other cases their liability to the cartel was determined despite their objections, and a class action against them was even approved. In the application for approval, it was claimed that the members of the group in Israel also fell victim to the cartel, in the same way that consumers around the world were harmed, due to the price increase caused by the cartel and passed on to consumers.