Does our foreign company's website have to meet Israeli accessibility rules if we sell to customers in Israel?

Very possibly. Regulation 35 of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities (Accessibility Adjustments for Service) Regulations 5773-2013 requires a website or app that provides a service, or information about a service, to the public in Israel to meet Israeli Standard 5568, which follows the WCAG guidelines at level AA. The Israel Internet Association reads the duty as depending on whether the Israeli public is being served, not on where the company is registered, what language the site uses or where its servers sit. A site launched after October 2017 is covered once the provider's average annual turnover passes NIS 100,000. A person with a disability who is shut out can claim compensation of up to NIS 50,000 without proving any damage, after first giving you a written demand and 60 days to put it right.

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Detailed Answer

The regulations were made under the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law 5758-1998 and began to bite for websites in October 2017. Israeli Standard 5568 is based on WCAG 2.0, which is why a site that already meets WCAG at level AA for American or European purposes is usually most of the way there. The turnover thresholds protect very small businesses and rarely help a foreign seller: sites that existed before the regulations are covered above NIS 1,000,000 of average annual turnover, and newer sites above NIS 100,000. The duty extends to apps and to documents offered on the site, and it requires an accessibility statement published on the site itself, stating the level of compliance achieved, the main adjustments made, any exemption relied on and contact details for an accessibility coordinator. Before suing over a website, a complainant has to send a written demand, and the business then has 60 days to correct the problem. That is the only grace period the regulations offer. Enforcement comes from three directions: individual claims, class actions and the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the Ministry of Justice.

For a company outside Israel the risk usually arrives as a Hebrew email to a customer-service address that nobody reads quickly. That message starts the 60-day clock, and a claim filed once it has run is far harder to settle cheaply than a defect fixed inside the window. The failures are mostly in the Hebrew version rather than the English one: right-to-left layouts that scramble the reading order for screen readers, images with no Hebrew alternative text, checkout pages built by a local agency and never tested, and no Hebrew accessibility statement at all. An automated overlay widget does not make a site compliant on its own, and Israeli claimants' lawyers know how to test around one. Whether an Israeli court will hold a company with no presence in Israel to the regulations is less settled than the Israel Internet Association's reading suggests, but a business that runs a Hebrew site, prices in shekels or ships to Israeli addresses will find that argument hard to win. Before relying on any threshold, check how turnover is measured for a group whose Israeli sales are a small slice of global revenue. Foreign companies selling to Israelis usually meet this duty at the same time as the rules on marketing emails to Israeli customers.

In Practice: Regulation 35 of the Accessibility Adjustments for Service Regulations 5773-2013 requires Israeli Standard 5568 at level AA for sites serving the public in Israel, with coverage from NIS 100,000 of average annual turnover for sites launched after October 2017. A complainant must first demand a fix and allow 60 days. After that a claim can seek up to NIS 50,000 without proof of damage, and the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the Ministry of Justice can act as well.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• You have received a Hebrew demand about your site or app, because the 60-day period to fix the problem runs from receipt and the reply should be written with a possible claim in mind.
• A class action has been filed or threatened over the site, since class proceedings change the scale of the exposure and the first procedural decisions shape what a settlement costs.
• You are relying on a turnover exemption or on having no Israeli entity, both of which need testing against how the regulations and the courts treat a foreign group that sells into Israel.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

An Israeli lawyer can answer an accessibility demand within the 60-day window, coordinate the technical audit and publish a Hebrew accessibility statement that matches what the site actually does.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.