Salmonella contamination class action against Shamir and Prince
Shufersal and Yohananoff are also being sued; the claimants demand NIS 6.7 billion compensation for respondents' negligence in inspecting products.
Michal Raz-Chaimovich
A request for approval for a class action suit against Shamir Salads, Prince Tehina, and the Shufersal Ltd. (TASE:SAE) and Yohananoff retail chains was filed today (Sunday) at the Lod District Court, following the recent contamination of Tehina with salmonella. The request demands financial compensation of over NIS 6.7 billion, NIS 1,000 per suitor.
The suit was filed through advocates Assaf Noy, David Or Hen, Yossi Greiber and Yitzhak Or and includes a demand for compensation for Israeli consumers "who feel anxious about their own health and the health of their children, anger, uncertainty, and disgust at eating the products of the respondents, suspected of salmonella bacteria contamination."
The lawsuit claims that Shamir Salads or Prince Tehina had been negligent in not conducting lab tests on their products, while Prince had also concealed information from its customers.
The request will also seek to determine that the reliance of Shamir Salads, Shufersal and Yohananoff on tests carried out by Prince, without conducting independent tests is by itself problematic.
"Even if the customers have not suffered from side effects… negligence in testing the products is a severe violation of the autonomy of all clients, who are entitled to digest only what they choose."
The request also says, "It is probable that if the respondents would have detected the presence of salmonella bacteria in their products in advance, they could have prevented them from being marketed to retail chains. The suit will claim that the respondents had operated with extreme negligence…and fundamentally violated the agreement between them and the products' consumers, making profit in an unjust manner" (class action 32119-08-16).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 14, 2016
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