ERM acted for Unidress, an Israeli market leader in the field of work clothes and uniforms, in an administrative petition which was submitted at the Tel Aviv District Court by Fibrotex Technologies Ltd.
The petition targeted the Ministry of Defense‘s decision to trial Unidress’ services and to lease 4,100 sets of special uniforms from Unidress, which would be used by the Israel Defense Force‘s (IDF) special units.
As part of the lease, Unidress also provides a wide range of services, including laundry services, repairs, replacements and an around-the-clock call centre. Since the Ministry reached the conclusion that Unidress is the only service provider in Israel which has the capabilities to perform such services, it decided not to publish a public tender, a decision which Fibrotex contested.
Fibrotex argued, among other things, that the services should be ‘divided’ into a few different parts, and that the Ministry should have published a tender relating to the manufacturing of the uniforms. The court rejected the petition, and accepted Unidress’ argument that such a division would undermine the essence of the services sought by the Ministry.
As our head of dispute resolution Gideon Weinbaum commented to TheMarker:
“Since the Ministry of Defense found that only Unidress can provide the services within the framework of the project, its decision to enter into the agreement with Unidress as a sole supplier is correct and reasonable”.
Other members of the dispute resolution team handling the case included associate Maya Katz Hilburg.
For more information and for media coverage of the case, please click here [article in Hebrew].
Dispute Resolution practice
Epstein Rosenblum Maoz (ERM)’s dispute resolution practice has extensive experience representing leading corporate and individual clients in every major industry in a wide variety of complex litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings which involve the full gamut of disputes.
For more information on this case and our dispute resolution practice, please contact Gideon Weinbaum.