After 7 years: Max will pay 26.6 million shekels in compensation — who is eligible
Following a prolonged legal battle that began back in 2019, a settlement agreement was submitted to the District Court, deciding that the company Max It Finance will compensate businesses. Which businesses will receive an automatic refund?
Max It Finance, one of the three credit card companies in Israel, which has been at the center of a legal storm since 2019, will return 26.6 million shekels to businesses that use its clearing services following a settlement agreement in a class action lawsuit.
The request to approve the settlement agreement was submitted today (Thursday) to the Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court. The settlement amount to be paid to businesses is divided into two parts. The first part is 11 million shekels to be returned to businesses that had a clearing agreement with the company in the seven years preceding the filing of the lawsuit.
According to estimates, the compensation that will be automatically returned to those eligible after court approval will amount to hundreds of shekels per business. The second part of the settlement agreement, 15.6 million shekels, will be distributed to businesses in the form of benefits that Max will offer over the next three years.
Recall that the settlement agreement comes after a class action lawsuit was filed in 2019 by a franchisee of the Aroma coffee shop chain against the company (which was then called Leumi Card), claiming that it charged him a transaction cancellation fee of 9.90 shekels in situations where the transaction performed by the customer was partially canceled, in addition to the clearing fee on the part of the transaction that was not canceled.
The plaintiff claimed that according to the contract he signed with the company, Max does not have the option to charge this fee. On behalf of the management of Max It Finance, it was stated that if the business had completely canceled the transaction on the same day it was performed and charged for the part that was not canceled, it would not have charged a cancellation fee. It was further noted that the cancellation fee is anchored in the contract with the business and was approved as part of the price list by the Bank of Israel.
Initially, the District Court rejected the request for a class action lawsuit, but in 2023 the decision was overturned following a ruling by the Supreme Court. Ultimately, the dispute ended in a settlement between the parties.
