{"id":600844,"date":"2026-08-22T04:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/600844\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T04:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:24:08","slug":"judge-narrows-ben-jerrys-silencing-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/600844\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge narrows Ben & Jerry’s ‘silencing’ lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on has dismissed major portions of a Ben & \u2060Jerry’s lawsuit accusing its former parent company Unilever of trying to silence the ice cream maker’s social activism, dismantle its board and stop funding its namesake foundation.<\/p>\n

US District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan dismissed seven claims and part of an eighth in a 10-count complaint by Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s and by various independent directors.<\/p>\n

Mr Castel also said Magnum, the Amsterdam-based company that has owned Ben & Jerry’s since it was spun off from Unilever last year, will take Unilever’s place as the primary defendant.<\/p>\n

The dismissed claims relate primarily to how Ben and Jerry’s operates, while the two claims that survived in full relate to missed payments by Unilever.<\/p>\n

Unilever’s 2000 purchase of Ben & Jerry’s had preserved substantial and \u200cuncommon freedoms for the ice cream \u2060company, relative to most acquisitions.<\/p>\n

\"Ben
\nBen & Jerry’s stopped selling ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2021<\/p>\n

These included an independent board, and the ability to continue pursuing a social mission and charitable work dating from its 1978 founding by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.<\/p>\n

The relationship began unraveling in 2021, however, when Ben & Jerry’s decided to stop selling ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Ben & Jerry’s independent directors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Unilever and its lawyers also did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n

Magnum said that it welcomed \u200cMr Castel’s decision, which it said significantly narrowed the case, and that the Ben & Jerry’s brand is thriving.<\/p>\n

Censorship, missed payments alleged<\/p>\n

Ben & Jerry’s accused Unilever of violating the 2000 merger agreement by censoring its speech, \u2060which has included protests against the war in Gaza, and ousting a chief executive who supported the company’s social activism.<\/p>\n

The alleged \u200ccensorship also included an effort to suppress planned criticism of US President Donald Trump as he began his \u2060second White House \u200cterm.<\/p>\n

In addition, it accused Unilever of violating a 2022 settlement over the sale of Ben & Jerry’s trademark rights in Israel, by failing to pay $2.5 million to Ben & Jerry’s and $2m to support Palestinian almond farmers.<\/p>\n

Unilever denied censoring Ben & Jerry’s and said the former chief executive voluntarily resigned.<\/p>\n

Read more:
99 Problems: What’s behind Ben & Jerry’s war with owner Unilever<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Castel said the merger agreement’s “plain meaning” did not afford \u2060Ben & Jerry’s Class I directors and the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation a right to sue on behalf of the company, including on the appointment and \u2060removal of directors.<\/p>\n

The judge said the directors could challenge new board eligibility requirements.<\/p>\n

He also said directors could sue over the missed payments on their own behalf, not on Ben & Jerry’s behalf.<\/p>\n

Unilever and Magnum agreed that claims over the missed payments could proceed for now, court papers show.<\/p>\n

The two companies are separately seeking the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit in San Francisco by Anuradha Mittal, who was ousted last December as chair of Ben & Jerry’s independent board.<\/p>\n

She accused the companies of vilifying and discrediting her for supporting Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

Other \u200cMagnum brands include Breyers, Klondike and Wall’s. Unilever brands include Dove, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lifebuoy and Vaseline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on has dismissed major portions of a Ben & \u2060Jerry’s lawsuit accusing its former parent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-600844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}