Israeli cancellation rules — the source we work from

Source: אמון הציבור (Public Trust) — https://www.emun.org/cancellation-guide/  Their consumer guidance on ביטול עסקת מכר מרחוק, ביטול עסקה מתמשכת, ביטול מנוי לחדר כושר, and their מכר מרחוק compliance checklist. Supplied by Saar 2026-08-12 and designated the reference for Taikan’s cancellation work.

Standing: אמון הציבור is a consumer-trust body that certifies businesses against these rules, so this is practitioner guidance written for compliance — not the statute itself, and their own document says it is no substitute for legal advice. Treat it as the working basis for design decisions; anything that turns into a customer-facing legal commitment still wants a lawyer.

Supersedes: the Part A legal research in docs/_scratch/israeli-cancellation-law-audit.md, which was assembled from Hebrew Wikisource transcriptions and could not verify several of its claims from a primary source. Where the two disagree, this document wins. The audit’s Part B (the code audit) stands on its own and is unaffected.

1. עסקת מכר מרחוק — distance sale

A transaction made without both parties physically present, following the seller approaching the consumer by post, phone, radio, fax, internet, TV, etc. A purchase through a website is one.

Window to cancel

• Continuous transaction: cancellable even if the service has already started.
• Non-continuous: the cancellation notice must be delivered at least 2 days before the service date.

Refund and cancellation fee

• The business refunds what was paid within 14 days of receiving the cancellation notice.
• It may charge a cancellation fee of 5% of the transaction value or ₪100 — whichever is lower.
• Returning a physical product is the consumer’s responsibility and cost.
• No fee at all where the cancellation is because the product was defective, different from what was ordered, or the business otherwise breached the contract — and the business collects the product from where it was delivered.
• Continuous transaction where the service had started: the consumer pays the proportional part for the service actually received.

No right of cancellation for

• Perishable goods (flowers, milk)
• Hospitality, travel, holiday or leisure services, where the cancellation falls within 7 non-rest days before the service is due
• “Information” as defined in the law
• Goods made specially for the consumer (special order)
• Recordable/copyable goods whose original packaging the consumer opened (disc, book)

2. Special populations — four months

Per תיקון 47, a consumer who is a person with a disability, a senior citizen, or a new immigrant may cancel a distance sale or door-to-door sale within four months of the transaction, receipt of the product, or receipt of the disclosure document — whichever is latest.

For a distance sale this applies only if the engagement included a conversation between the business and the consumer, including a conversation by electronic communication.

• אזרח ותיק — aged 65 or over.
• עולה חדש — within 5 years of the date of their עולה certificate or entitlement certificate.
• אדם עם מוגבלות — as defined in חוק שוויון זכויות לאנשים עם מוגבלות.

The business may require one certificate proving the status and may not demand any further proof in order to honour the cancellation.

3. עסקה מתמשכת — continuous transaction

A transaction where a product or service is bought on a continuing basis. Explicitly includes מנוי לחדר כושר וספא — gym and spa membership. Also internet/cable/phone, cosmetics and aesthetics, long-term holiday deals running over a year, discount-club membership, lottery subscriptions, dating clubs.

A transaction is continuous whether or not it is time-limited. Gas supply, and transactions made as part of discounts and promotions, are not continuous transactions.

• Window: 14 days from the transaction, or from receiving the business’s written document — whichever is later.
• Cancellable even after the consumer has started receiving the service; the refund is proportional to the use made.
• The business must stop charging within 3 days of receiving the cancellation notice, or within 6 days where the notice was sent by registered mail.
• The business may charge a cancellation fee.
• The consumer may give notice orally at the business, by phone, by registered mail, by email, or by fax.
• How to cancel must be visible and clear in the contract and in the receipt/invoice.
• For transactions made through a website: the transaction can also be cancelled through the site. The business must publish on the site’s home page, clearly and prominently, a direct link for sending a cancellation notice together with the consumer’s personal details.

4. מנוי לחדר כושר — gym membership

• The member gives written notice of cancellation.

• The cancellation takes effect at the end of one month from delivery of the notice.

• The member pays the proportional part of the membership for the period they were actually a member, up to the date the cancellation takes effect.

• On top of that the gym may charge a cancellation fee:

  1. (monthly price under the membership − monthly price on an alternative track) × the number of months the membership was in effect. The alternative track is the monthly price without an annual / biennial / half-yearly commitment. The logic: a term membership is cheaper per month precisely because of the commitment, so shortening the term lets the gym recover the difference.
  2. Capped at 25% of the transaction value if cancelled in the first third of the term, 20% in the second third, 17% in the last third — and in no case more than the consumer would have paid had they not cancelled.

Their worked example. Tzachi joins for a year at ₪1,200 total — ₪100/month instead of ₪150. Cancelling after 4 months he pays ₪400 for the months used, plus ₪200 for the difference (₪50 × 4). Cancelling after 7 months the raw difference would be ₪400, but the second-third cap of 20% applies, so he pays ₪700 for the months used plus ₪240.

What this means for Taikan

Taikan sells rolling monthly subscriptions, punch cards (one-off with expiry), and drop-ins — no committed-term memberships.

• The cancellation fee computes to zero. The fee is the gap between the committed monthly price and the alternative monthly price. A rolling membership has no cheaper-because-committed price, so there is no gap. No fee engine is needed.
• The one-month effective date is the live question. This guidance states it for gym memberships without limiting it to fixed-term deals, while the fee formula it sits next to only makes sense for a term. If one month is right for rolling memberships too, then “cancel at period end” is close to correct but not the same thing: one month from the notice and the end of the current billing period can differ by up to a month either way. If the general continuous-transaction rule governs instead, charging must stop within 3 days. Needs settling before the effective-date work.
• Punch cards and drop-ins are not continuous transactions. They are one-off service purchases: 14 days from the transaction or the written document, whichever is later. A drop-in booked for a specific session also carries the non-continuous rule that notice must land at least 2 days before the session.

5. Cancellation notice — what we may and may not require

• The consumer states their name and ID number.
• If the notice is oral, one additional identifying detail — and only if that was agreed with the consumer at the time of engagement.
• The available cancellation channels may not be conditioned.

This is why the cancellation reason is asked for but never required, and why a member must be able to cancel regardless of subscription state. Taikan does not currently capture an ID number on cancellation.

6. Disclosure obligations

The disclosure document, supplied in writing no later than supply of the product or service, must include the business details, the main characteristics, the price and payment terms, how the consumer exercises the right to cancel, the manufacturer and country of origin, warranty information, other terms, and the ways to deliver a cancellation notice, the contact details for each channel, and what the notice must contain.

That cancellation-channel information must also appear on:

• every invoice, receipt, and payment notice;
• for a fixed-term transaction, the notice of the transaction’s end date;
• the home page of any sales site, adjacent to the dedicated cancellation link.

All of it adjacent, in special prominence, in clear legible letters.

Business identity — name and ח.פ/ע.מ — must appear in correspondence (especially order forms and warranty certificates), the contract, the credit voucher or tax invoice, and any offer to contract including a price quote. Taikan has no country, legal-entity-name or ח.פ column on organizations, so none of this can currently be rendered.

7. Other duties in the same checklist

Not cancellation, but in scope for the same compliance surface: inclusive pricing in NIS (VAT and unavoidable costs included, prominent, round to tenths of a shekel); disclosure of supply date and terms; no bait advertising; delivery-window compensation (₪300 if the representative is more than two hours late, ₪600 beyond three); consent-based marketing email/SMS rules; and database registration where the base exceeds 10,000 people, holds sensitive information (email addresses count as sensitive), or is used for direct mail.