Ben & Jerry’s loses attempt to block ice cream sales in West Bank

Ben & Jerry’s has lost an attempt to stop its UK-based parent Unilever from selling its ice cream brand to a local licensee in Israel, as the two companies clash over sales in occupied Palestinian territories.

US District Judge Andrew Carter in New York federal court on Monday denied Ben & Jerry’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking any deal that would allow its products to be sold or distributed in the West Bank, where Israeli settlements are viewed as illegal by most of the world. Ben & Jerry’s had halted sales there last year, calling it “inconsistent with our values”.

Unilever in June said it had agreed to sell Ben & Jerry’s Israel operations to a local licensee, Avi Zinger’s American Quality Products. In response, Ben & Jerry’s sued its parent company, saying the sale violated the terms of Unilever’s 2000 takeover, which allowed the ice cream maker to retain an independent board in a unique arrangement that gave it more autonomy to focus on social issues.

During a court hearing in the case earlier this month, a lawyer for Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s argued the ice cream maker’s social mission could be undermined if an injunction was not granted.

Lawyers for Ben & Jerry’s also argued Zinger could use intellectual property and make products that contradict Ben & Jerry’s social stances. “Instead of peace pops, he could make tank pops,” Shahmeer Halepota, a lawyer for the ice cream maker, said during the hearing.

Unilever countered the transaction with Zinger had closed and that licenses had been given “irrevocably” as part of the agreement. Its lawyers said that under the deal Ben & Jerry’s products will be sold there using only Hebrew and Arabic and not with English trademarks, limiting customer confusion.

Carter ruled relief could not hinge on such “hypothetical scenario involving several speculative steps” and that customer confusion was also “remote”.

Moving forward, Carter said the products would be “dissimilar from other Ben & Jerry’s products, mitigating, if not eliminating, the possibility of reputational harm”.

Earlier attempts at mediation between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever broke down and the ice cream maker said the parent company stopped paying its five independent board members.

Ben & Jerry’s was one of only 13 Unilever brands to top €1bn in annual sales last year. “There is plenty for Ben & Jerry’s to get their teeth into on their social justice mission without straying into geopolitics,” Alan Jope, chief executive of Unilever, said recently.

The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.