The Supreme Court ruled that Haredi parents will be able to file a class action lawsuit against the Beit Yaakov education chains for illegally collecting screening and registration fees - thereby effectively overturning the District Court's ruling, and ordering the case to be returned to the District Court, so that it can examine the remaining conditions for approving the lawsuit as a class action.
It was also determined that the case will be returned to the Administrative Court for the purpose of continuing the civil proceedings.
The decision means that educational institutions will no longer be able to submit a cease-and-desist notice, and they are exposed to lawsuits for payments collected starting in 2012.
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In addition, the Supreme Court overturned the costs awarded in the district court, and ordered the seminarians to pay costs totaling 60,000 shekels.
The ruling determined that the Beit Yaakov chains act as a "dealer" under the Consumer Protection Law when collecting payments for screening and registration procedures, and that this is a distinct consumer service to which Item 1 of the Second Schedule to the Class Actions Law applies, which concerns dealer-consumer relationships. The court rejected the chains' argument that they are immune from class action lawsuits because they are recognized, unofficial educational institutions, and clarified that Item 11 of the Second Schedule, which deals with lawsuits against an authority, does not apply in this case - but this does not prevent the filing of a class action lawsuit under Item 1, which concerns dealer-consumer relationships.
The ruling firmly states that recognized, unofficial educational institutions are not immune from class action lawsuits, and lawsuits against them will be conducted through the civil or administrative track. As determined with respect to the "Beit Yaakov" chains, these are private consumer entities and not the "authority.".
The court ruled that even in an ongoing educational relationship, when a specific service such as screening and registration procedures is involved, consumer laws apply just as they apply to the purchase of any other service or product. It was also noted that the ruling opens the door to a renewed discussion of the ruling in the 'Butches' case, regarding the application of consumer protection laws to the collection of registration fees at universities and colleges.
The proceedings were conducted on behalf of the class action plaintiff by attorneys Yoav Lalom and Reuven Biton, who stated: “The Supreme Court clearly stated that even ultra-Orthodox educational institutions are no longer immune from the civil enforcement mechanism and will be able to be sued in a class action lawsuit.
""This is a great victory for parents, for educational consumerism and for transparency. Tens of thousands of parents who paid 150-200 shekels in screening fees that were not refunded will now be able to get their money back as part of the procedure we submitted. This is especially important news for the Haredi public, which often suffers from the illegal collection of registration fees.".
