Violation of exclusivity agreement: Court stops sale of Tineco vacuums by importer
The Tel Aviv District Court issued a temporary injunction against an electrical appliance importer that imported Tineco brand wet-dry vacuum cleaners behind the back of the exclusive importer.
The Tel Aviv District Court issued a temporary injunction against an electrical appliance importer that imported Tineco brand wet-dry vacuum cleaners behind the back of the exclusive importer. Judge Amir Weitzenblit ordered the detention of three containers imported by the company S.A. Premium Products, which had already arrived in Israel, and prevented the sale of the vacuum cleaners in stores and electrical retail chains. This follows a request for an injunction filed by the official importer in Israel, Unico Retail, owned by the parent company OIG, which has been importing and distributing Tineco vacuum cleaners exclusively since 2020. The official importer also intends to file a financial lawsuit against the importer S.A.
Unlike parallel import, which the exclusive importer is prohibited from preventing, in this case, it concerns merchandise purchased directly from the supplier abroad, which constitutes a breach of the contract signed between the international supplier and the exclusive importer. The judge granted the order "in order to prevent an irreversible action" and after the official importer proved to him that it has exclusivity for the distribution of the brand. "The request establishes, apparently, considerations of the balance of convenience that lean towards granting a temporary order, which is damage to the reputation and business of the applicants," the judge wrote.
Despite the prohibition on selling the merchandise, he authorized its release from the port, as storing merchandise at the port entails high costs. The order prohibits S.A. Premium Products from marketing, selling, and distributing Tineco products imported in the 3 containers to Israel and supplied to it by ECOVACS GLOBAL PTE. LTD, which is the manufacturer of Tineco vacuums. In addition, the court granted Unico's request to approve an order prohibiting S.A. from presenting itself, directly or indirectly, as the official importer and exclusive distributor of Tineco in Israel.
In the request for an injunction, Unico claims, and even proves, that it is signed to an exclusive distribution agreement with companies from the global Tineco and Ecovacs group, and within its framework, it has built the brand's activity in Israel for six years and invested 36.4 million shekels in marketing and distribution systems. The first exclusivity agreement was signed in 2020, another agreement was signed in 2023, and in February 2025, the current agreement was signed for a period of 36 months, until January 2028.
Unico is an electrical appliance importer owned by the Gabay family, represented by attorneys Amir Altshuler, Adi Amitai, and Alon Landa from the Altshuler law firm. In fact, in the request for an injunction, the company reveals that the dispute with the importer S.A. is a kind of family dispute, as the son of the owner of S.A. Premium Products, Erez Aharoni, is a cousin of Itzik Gabay, one of the controlling owners and CEO of Unico.
"This move was made when the respondent and its head, Erez Aharoni, had full and first-hand knowledge regarding Unico's rights. Erez Aharoni, the son of the one registered as its shareholder and manager, the uncle, Sasson Gabay, is the cousin of Yitzhak Gabay, has known its business activity for years, has previously purchased products from the applicants, and is closely familiar with Tineco's activity in Israel and Unico's status as the exclusive and official distributor of the brand."
Unico claims that the owner of S.A. Premium acted against the supplier, which holds many factories in China, to receive the products directly from the manufacturing factory, and not by way of parallel import, "and this despite its full and clear knowledge that Ecovacs is obligated to Unico in an exclusive distribution agreement and that Unico is the exclusive distributor of Tineco in Israel, while on the face of it, it presents false representations to Ecovacs."
It also emerges from the request that in the past, S.A. had already imported the brand in parallel import, "about which Unico did not complain and does not complain," but it failed in its parallel import activity and turned directly to the supplier abroad, presented false representations to it, and is trying to bring the brand in direct import, "and even tries to present itself as an official representative of Tineco," and turned to electrical chains and retailers, including Mahsanei Hashmal, KSP, A.L.M., and private electrical stores.
In addition to this, a model of a Tineco vacuum cleaner imported by S.A. Premium Products, which includes voice feedback in Hebrew, was advertised for future sale on the Super-Pharm website. Unico claims that this is a significant indication of deception on the part of S.A., as "voice feedback in Hebrew exists only in products intended for official import in Israel," while products that arrive in parallel import include feedback in foreign languages, but not in Hebrew.
Unico claims that it identified three containers that arrived at the Port of Ashdod, and the shipping documents show that the source of the merchandise is Ecovacs itself. The company even presented to the court correspondence from 10.08.26, in which Ecovacs confirms that Unico is the exclusive distributor of Tineco in Israel and that it has not appointed another distributor in Israel. And despite this, Ecovacs sold the merchandise to another importer. "Ecovacs appears as the sender of the merchandise, while the respondent appears as the consignee in Israel. It is the same Ecovacs, from the same address in Singapore, that supplies Unico with Tineco products by virtue of the contractual relationship between them, as also emerges from Unico's current import documents," the company noted in its appeal to the court.
