A new court ruling could undermine one of the main premises in Case 4,000, a corruption case in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused of illicit dealings with telecommunications giant Bezeq.
The Tel Aviv District Court dismissed this month a class action lawsuit against Bezeq, ruling that the corporation did not conduct itself as a monopoly, and therefore may have not benefited from the alleged corruption.
The lawsuit, filed in 2015, claimed that "Bezeq exploited its monopolistic vertical integration by offering prices that would prevent other companies from offering landline services at competitive prices."
The suit further said that "Bezeq sidelined its competitors and limited their ability to attract new customers and expand their market share… which would have brought down prices over the long run."
Earlier this month, after the Israel Antitrust Authority concluded that Bezeq had not taken advantage of its monopolistic status, the court ruled in the company's favor.
Case 4,000 centers on alleged conflict of interest involving Netanyahu, Bezeq and the Walla news website, which Bezeq owns. The police allege that Bezeq's controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, ensured positive coverage of the Netanyahu family on Walla in exchange for the prime minister promoting government regulations favorable to Bezeq that would cement the telecom giant's market share and be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the corporation.
According to Avi Weiss, the chief editor of the Telecom News website, the ruling proves that Bezeq never benefited from any particular regulatory decisions or received special treatment from Netanyahu.
