Ocado

Key Findings

Economic: Ethical Consumer recorded Israeli-origin Medjool dates on Ocado.com in December 2025 to January 2026. It did not state which exporter supplied them, and no later check was opened.¹ Settlements: Ethical Consumer saw no goods labelled as coming from settlements, and no Ocado link to settlement goods was found.¹

Political: No Ocado statement on Israel–Palestine was identified. Ocado is listed as a “decision maker” on an October 2025 Change.org petition (66 signatures), with no Ocado response shown.²

Digital: An undated 18-month personalisation programme used Dynamic Yield, an Israeli-founded vendor now owned by Mastercard. Its start date, end date and current status are unknown.^{3, 4}

Not found: No defence contracts, dual-use variants, Israeli defence-prime supply links, or Israeli state security relationships were identified. Ocado is also absent from the Who Profits database.^{5, 6}

Target Profile

Field	Detail
Company Name	Ocado Group plc
Jurisdiction	England and Wales (Companies House no. 07098618)⁷
Headquarters	Hatfield, UK (a separate US head office is also listed)⁸
Sector	Online grocery technology: automated fulfilment (Ocado Smart Platform) and, via a 50% joint venture, online grocery retail^{8, 9}
Ownership	Listed on the London Stock Exchange (OCDO).⁸ Ocado Retail Limited is a 50:50 joint venture with Marks & Spencer Group. Ocado Group carries it as an associate and M&S has held control since April 2025.¹⁰ Holders of 10% or more in 2026 notices: Apple III Limited (10.07%, a closely associated person of director Jörn Rausing) and Lingotto Investment Management LLP (14.99% on 13 March 2026, 11.97% on 1 September 2026, per AI-generated page summaries).¹¹
Key Executives / Governance	Tim Steiner (co-founder and CEO), Adam Warby (Chair), Jörn Rausing (non-executive director), Stephen Daintith (CFO)¹²
Israeli-Nexus Summary	A low-level retail observation of Israeli-origin Medjool dates on Ocado.com, plus undated Israeli-origin vendor use (Dynamic Yield, Namogoo). No military, settlement or state-security nexus was identified.^{1, 3, 13}

Key Facts:

Ocado Group is a technology licensor to civilian grocers. Its partner list of 15 grocers contains no Israeli entity.⁸
Ocado Retail Limited, not Ocado Group, operates Ocado.com.¹⁰
No Ocado office, R&D centre, data centre or investment in Israel was identified.^{8, 14}

Executive Summary

Ocado Group is a UK-listed grocery technology company. It licenses robotic fulfilment technology to civilian retailers and holds a 50% stake in Ocado Retail, the operator of Ocado.com. The four audits found no operations, investments, offices or partners in Israel or the occupied territories. They also found no Israeli customers or suppliers in Ocado’s technology business.^{8, 14}

The strongest documented vector is economic and low-level. Ethical Consumer, using labels and company websites viewed in December 2025 and January 2026, listed Ocado among brands selling Israeli-origin Medjool dates. The guide did not identify the exporter, and Ethical Consumer says it did not come across any goods labelled as coming from settlements.¹ The audits also record a Redefine Meat listing on Ocado.com from November 2023 and undated use of Israeli-origin vendors. Redefine Meat is described as an “Israel-based producer”, and the vendors are Dynamic Yield, now Mastercard-owned, and Namogoo, dated 2016. None of these is linked to a state, military or occupied-territory contract.^{15, 3, 13}

The audits found no public evidence of defence contracts, dual-use products, supply to Israeli defence primes, export-licensing issues, or listings by Who Profits, the UN settlement database, A/HRC/59/23 or BDS campaigns. Ocado has made no public statement on Israel–Palestine, and the only civil-society link is its listing on a small petition.^{6, 16, 2}

The result is BRS 72, Tier E (Minimal/No Complicity). Economic is the only domain scoring above zero, at 0.86.

Timeline of Relevant Events

Date	Event
2009	Ocado launches a Kosher for Passover range from named suppliers; the article states no country of origin and the status is unknown [pre-2020]¹⁷
1 June 2016	Blumberg Capital announces that Israeli-headquartered Namogoo will protect customer data for Ocado; the status is unknown [pre-2020]¹³
5 August 2019	M&S completes acquisition of 50% of Ocado Retail (announced 27 February 2019) [pre-2020]¹⁸
22 November 2023	Redefine Meat (Israel-based) launches in UK retail through Ocado^{15, 19}
13 April 2023	Google Cloud publishes the Ocado Retail BigQuery data-platform case; no Israeli technology is named²⁰
April 2025	Ocado transfers its tie-breaking rights in Ocado Retail to M&S and ceases to fully consolidate it¹⁰
8 October 2025	Change.org petition created that lists Ocado among its “decision makers”²
December 2025 – January 2026	Ethical Consumer observes Israeli-origin Medjool dates on Ocado¹
29 May 2026	Ocado and Asda announce a technology partnership; the audits name no Israeli link^{21, 22}
16 July 2026	Ocado HY26 results show the M&S contingent consideration receivable at £nil²³
28 July 2026	City AM reports that Ocado has dropped its pursuit of the £190.7m M&S payment; this is press reporting, not a company announcement²⁴

Corporate Overview

Ocado Group plc has two main activities: Ocado Solutions, which licenses fulfilment technology to grocery partners, and an interest in Ocado Retail, the grocery retailer. Ocado was founded in 2000 by Tim Steiner, a former Goldman Sachs bond trader, with Jonathan Faiman and Jason Gissing.^{12, 25}

Ocado Retail is a 50:50 joint venture with M&S. M&S paid £750m for its 50% in 2019, of which £187.5m was deferred and contingent on undisclosed targets. That deferred amount (reported as £190.7m) is not paid and is carried at nil.^{18, 23, 24} In April 2025 M&S obtained control, and Ocado Group now accounts for its 50% as an associate.¹⁰

The audits identified no Israeli subsidiaries, joint ventures, franchises or investments. Ocado’s acquisitions were Kindred Systems (US, 2020), Haddington Dynamics (US) and Myrmex (Greece, 2022).²⁶ The audits identified no state shareholding, golden share or Israeli-state link.¹²

Israeli-origin vendors appear only as suppliers to Ocado:

Dynamic Yield: Israeli-founded, owned by McDonald’s from 2019 and by Mastercard from April 2022.^{4, 27}
Namogoo: Israeli-headquartered, with a 2016 relationship.^{13, 28}
Wandz.ai: Israeli origin is unconfirmed.²⁹

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any military mechanism. The audit found no defence contracts, no tactical or dual-use product variants, no supply to Elbit, IAI or Rafael, no presence at DSEI or in the SIBAT directories, and no equipment in occupied territory.^{5, 30, 31} Ocado’s logistics are confined to UK last-mile grocery delivery, and its partners are civilian grocers.⁹ The Military score is I=0, M=0, P=0, giving V=0.00.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The audit itself records the evidence gaps:

The full SIBAT catalogue and the Hebrew-language Israeli procurement portal could not be searched exhaustively.³⁰
ECJU licence tables do not always name exporters, so a Freedom of Information request would be needed to exclude Ocado conclusively.³²
Upstream component resale to Israeli defence primes could not be checked.
Undisclosed pilot licensing in Israel cannot be entirely excluded, though Ocado had no publicly disclosed Israeli partner as of 2023.⁹

These are limits of verification, not evidence of involvement.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Ocado Group plc: no entry in Who Profits, AFSC, Corporate Occupation, Amnesty or HRW material.⁶
Elbit, IAI, Rafael: no supply link identified.
SIBAT / DSEI / ECJU: no Ocado entry identified.^{30, 31, 32}

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

The only digital nexus is Ocado’s use of Israeli-origin commercial vendors.

Dynamic Yield: An undated vendor case study mirror describes an 18-month personalisation and testing programme with “Ocado” (legal entity not named) via the agency Conversio. A second case study describes similar use.^{3, 33} Dynamic Yield was described as Tel Aviv-based at the 2021 Mastercard deal, and Mastercard now describes a Ramat Gan headquarters.^{4, 34, 35} It is owned by Mastercard.²⁷
Namogoo: an Israeli-headquartered web-session security vendor announced for Ocado in 2016, with status unknown [pre-2020].^{13, 28}
Wandz.ai: deployed per a 23 October 2023 vendor page, with Israeli origin unconfirmed.²⁹

Ocado’s core platforms are Google Cloud (Security Command Center, BigQuery), Cognizant and Adobe, none of them Israeli.^{36, 20, 37} The audit found no public evidence of Israeli data centres, Project Nimbus participation, Israeli state contracts, an Israeli R&D centre, or acquisitions of Israeli firms.^{8, 26} The Digital score is I=0, M=0, P=0, giving V=0.00.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Dynamic Yield is the customer-journey personalisation and A/B testing tool, not core network infrastructure.³
The programme pages carry no dates. The contracting Ocado entity and the current status are unknown.^{3, 33}
Neither Ocado Retail’s current privacy policy nor Ocado Group’s 2025 cookie policy names Dynamic Yield. This neither confirms nor excludes continued use.³⁸
The Dynamic Yield case studies are vendor marketing material, and the pages reviewed do not state where the data is hosted.³
Dynamic Yield’s current owner is Mastercard, a US company, not an Israeli entity.²⁷
The audit found no public evidence of transfers of Ocado data to Israel. The EU and UK adequacy regimes for Israel are context only.
The Wandz.ai origin is unconfirmed, and the 2016 Namogoo link is old with unknown status.^{29, 13}
Dynamic Yield’s founding year (2011 or 2012) is unresolved across sources.^{4, 39}

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Dynamic Yield: found with Ocado; no state, military or occupied-territory contract found.^{3, 4}
Mastercard: acquirer; no boycott or settlement-list entry found in the search results.²⁷
Conversio: agency; origin not stated.³
Namogoo: Herzliya-based; acquired by AB Tasty in November 2025.²⁸
Wandz.ai: origin unconfirmed.²⁹
Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, Claroty, Palo Alto: no public evidence identified of a relationship.³⁶

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

The Economic finding rests on one act. Ethical Consumer observed that Ocado Retail Limited, the operator of Ocado.com, sold Israeli-origin Medjool dates in December 2025 to January 2026. This is a purchase of Israeli agricultural exports, so retail revenue reaches the Israeli date-export economy.¹ The adjudicated scoring is I=3.0, M=2.0, P=7.0, giving V=0.86. P reflects direct retail sale; the low I and M reflect the narrow scope: a single product category, with no scale or supply contract documented.

Other findings are neutral. No Israeli investment, office, R&D facility, revenue or profit flow was identified.^{8, 14} The audit also found no corporate labelling policy on occupied-territory goods, no enforcement action naming Ocado, and no listing of Ocado in the OHCHR database coverage.^{40, 16}

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

This is Ocado’s strongest defence on the economic record:

The evidence is a label observation. Ethical Consumer is an advocacy publication, its findings are not a regulatory finding, and the guide does not say which exporter supplied Ocado.¹
No settlement link. Ethical Consumer states that it did not come across any goods labelled as coming from settlements. The Mehadrin and Hadiklaim settlement-date allegations are reported by third parties, are unverified here, and are not tied to Ocado.^{1, 41}
Labelling is voluntary for dried dates. Defra told Ethical Consumer that dried dates fall outside fruit and vegetable marketing standards. No enforcement action naming Ocado was identified.^{1, 22}
Entity and ownership structure. The selling entity is Ocado Retail Limited, 50% owned by Ocado Group and 50% by M&S, which has held control since April 2025. Ocado Group carries it as an associate.^{10, 23} The audits state that M&S’s own Israeli produce stocking (July 2026, Worthing store) does not document Ocado.⁴²
Duration is unknown. The observation covers December 2025 to January 2026, and no later check was opened.¹ The audit found no public evidence of recurring seasonal procurement.
No supplier link. No relationship with Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, Galilee Export or Agrexco successors was identified. The Mehadrin 2013 allegations concern Tesco and do not name Ocado.⁴³ The 2009 Passover range article gives no country of origin.¹⁷
Dates. M&S food lines reach Ocado customers via the joint venture, but the source does not say whether any are Israeli-origin.
Unverified lead. Jörn Rausing’s reported minority holding in IFF (which bought Israel’s Frutarom) was not verified against a filing. It would be a passive stake held by a director, and nothing in the audits ties it to Ocado.
Ownership notices. The shareholder figures come from AI-generated page summaries. Lingotto’s figures are inconsistent between summaries and are not relied on beyond the headline ranges, and no Israel link was found for Lingotto, Exor or Apple III.¹¹

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Ocado Retail Limited: the Israeli-origin Medjool date observation (Dec 2025 – Jan 2026), continuation unknown.¹
Mehadrin / Hadiklaim: settlement-date allegations unverified here and not tied to Ocado.^{1, 41}
M&S Group: 2008 statement that it does not buy from the West Bank, Golan Heights or Gaza; July 2026 Worthing Israeli potatoes. Neither documents Ocado.^{44, 42}
Yehuda Matzos, Telma: searched; no supply arrangement documented.¹⁴
Board and shareholders (Steiner, Warby, Rausing, Apple III, Lingotto, Exor): no Israel link found.^{12, 11}

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of an Ocado statement on Israel–Palestine, lobbying on the issue, donations to Israeli state or military causes, “Brand Israel” activity, or operations in occupied territory.⁸ Israel-adjacent items are limited to:

Ocado’s listing as a “decision maker” on an October 2025 Change.org petition, which does not name Ocado in its text and shows no Ocado response.²
The Redefine Meat listing on Ocado.com in November 2023. This is a commercial supplier relationship with no stated settlement link, and its 2026 status is unknown.^{15, 19}

Other political items are unrelated to Israel: Tim Steiner’s £50,000 Conservative Party donation in 2019 [pre-2020], his July 2025 UK tax commentary, and Defra meetings on food supply (2023).^{25, 45} The scoring assigns Political I=2.0 (Incidental) with M=0 and P=0, giving V=0.00.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The petition is a third-party campaign document. It lists Ocado alongside Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Food Standards Agency, and it states nothing specific about Ocado.²
Ocado is not named in the BHRRC boycott timeline, the PSC campaigns of March 2025, the Telegraph report on legal threats, or the UN settlement-database coverage.^{46, 47, 16}
The AGM political-donations authority is a routine UK company resolution (94.37% for in 2025; 95.50% for in 2026). No evidence indicates it was used for Israel-related purposes.^{48, 49}
The Redefine Meat supplier is an Israel-based producer, but the pages give no production site.¹⁵
M&S’s historic Israel-store history (1997 closures, 1999 reopening plan) predates 2020, has unknown current status, and attaches to M&S, not Ocado.^{50, 51} A third party’s 2025 legal threat naming M&S likewise does not name Ocado.⁴⁷
The press reporting on the M&S payout dispute is unconfirmed by either company on the record.²⁴

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Ocado Group plc / Ocado Retail Ltd: no Israel-related statements; petition listing and Redefine Meat listing only.^{2, 15}
Tim Steiner: no Israel-related statements or donations; the 2019 UK donation was personal.²⁵
Marks & Spencer Group: pre-2020 Israel history and a 2025 third-party legal-threat naming, neither involving Ocado.^{50, 47}
Lingotto, Morgan Stanley (6.16%): holding notices only; no Israel link found.¹¹
Asda, Auchan Retail Poland: commercial partners; no Israel link.²¹

Complicity Index Score

Method: V6.6.

Domain	I	M	P	V-Domain Score
Military	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Digital	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Economic	3.00	2.00	7.00	0.86
Political	2.00	0.00	0.00	0.00

V_MAX: 0.86 Avg_OTHERS: 0.00
BRS Score: 72 Tier: E (Minimal/No Complicity)

V_MAX is driven entirely by Economic: Impact 3.0 × min(2/7, 1) × min(7/7, 1) = 0.86. The Israeli-origin dates observation is a direct retail sale (high proximity) but a narrow, low-scale activity. Military and Digital had no mechanically eligible evidence frame. Political’s incidental Impact is multiplied by zero Magnitude and Proximity. BRS = (0.86 / 12) × 1000 ≈ 72, in Tier E (0–199). The method is scale-free, evidence-only and human-vetted, and the scores are final.

Methodology Note

Evidence is drawn only from the four domain audits (Military, Digital, Economic, Political); no outside facts are added.
The scoring is scale-free: Impact reflects the type of activity, Magnitude the scale, and Proximity the directness of the link.
Under the temporal rule, divested or exited operations are mitigated and items older than five years are flagged [pre-2020].
Under entity attribution, there is no transitive guilt. M&S, Dynamic Yield, Mastercard and shareholder activities are not attributed to Ocado without direct evidence.
Settlement operations would count in both Economic and Political; none were identified here.
“No public evidence identified” is used wherever checks found nothing. Unverified or unresolved items (for example, the exporter behind the dates, the Dynamic Yield programme dates and the status of the M&S payment) are carried with their caveats.