Ben & Jerry’s Sues Unilever For Blocking Public Stance on Gaza
Tensions are rising between Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever.
The mission-driven ice cream maker filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit on Wednesday in a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the multinational conglomerate, claiming it has repeatedly blocked the brand’s attempts to take a public stance on the war in Gaza.
“Unilever has repeatedly failed to recognize and respect the Independent Board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission and Brand Integrity, including threatening Ben & Jerry’s personnel should the company speak regarding issues which Unilever prefers to censor,” the complaint states. “The Independent Board initiates this litigation to protect Ben & Jerry’s three-part mission from Unilever’s unilateral erosion and to safeguard the company from Unilever’s repeated overreaches.”
B&J claims that over the past year, Unilever has attempted to dismantle its independent board and intimidate individual members with threats of legal action if they spoke up. The ice cream maker also alleges Unilever blocked its attempts to donate money to humanitarian organizations involved in the conflict.
“We reject the claims made by B&J’s social mission board,” Unilever said in a statement.
But this isn’t the first time B&J has claimed Unilever interfered with its independent board, which was enacted per terms of its acquisition in 2000 by the CPG giant. The deal set up a structure that would grant B&J the right to maintain and operate an independent board solely responsible for maintaining its mission.
In 2021, B&J attempted to discontinue selling its products in “Isreal-only” settlements in the West Bank, which prompted Israeli businessman Avi Zinger to sue the company. Unilever then granted Zinger a license to sell the products with slightly different branding.
B&J then sued to block the deal, claiming it violated the merger terms from 2000 and sold the brand’s intellectual property without the board’s consent; in 2022, the two parties reached a settlement that B&J claims was “expressly conditioned” on Unilever respecting the independent board’s authority, according to this week’s filing.
But B&J is now saying that Unilever has done anything but that, alleging that in December 2023 it blocked the brand’s attempt to issue a statement calling for “peace” and a “ceasefire.” Also part of the 2022 settlement: a promise for a $5 million donation, to be disbursed by B&J, to human rights and humanitarian organizations.
This latest suit claims Unilever would not allow for that money to be donated to advocacy groups Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The complaint also claims that Unilever breached part of the 2022 settlement that called on it to allocate $20 million to indigenous Palestinian farmers over the next decade.
However, the dispute also comes as Unilever prepares to spin off its ice cream business into a separate, standalone publicly traded company. The plan has drawn comparisons to the division and spinoff of The Kellogg Company into two separate business units in September 2023. It remains to be seen how this transition would impact the leadership and oversight of Ben & Jerry’s mission moving forward.
