Ben & Jerry’s storm hits court: Israeli ice cream brand franchisee Avi Singer today (Thursday) filed a lawsuit in federal court in the United States against the global food corporation Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company.
In the lawsuit, Singer claims that requiring him not to market the products in Israeli localities in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem is a violation of American and Israeli law.
Singer’s contract for the production and marketing of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel will expire at the end of the year, and the global company intends not to extend it. Thus, after 35 years, the popular brand may disappear from the shelves in the country.
However, Unilever reported last month that the company is working to find a “new arrangement” for the sale of products in Israel. However, if the lawsuit succeeds and determines that the boycott of the settlements was done illegally, Unilever could run into a dilemma: renewing the contract in Israel with Singer or a new franchisee, who will also be required to supply ice cream demand from localities across the Green Line – or the brand leaving the country.
Singer’s attorneys in the United States are asking the court to recognize the termination of Unilever’s contract with Singer as an illegal move.
Singer’s lack of power argues that the company’s decision violates a number of laws in Israel and the United States. Various laws on the subject, including the U.S. Export Control Act, prohibit companies from refusing to do business for boycott-related reasons.
Theoretically, if Unilever succeeds in continuing Ben & Jerry’s operations in Israel under another franchisee, it will not be automatically obligated to sell its wares on its own initiative beyond the Green Line. However, if marketing chains operating in the settlements ask the franchisee to supply them with Ben & Jerrys merchandise, it appears that he will be obliged to accede to the application, in accordance with the spirit of the law.
Singer further claims through the statement of claim that Unilever’s claim also violates the agreement signed with the Government Competition Authority in Israel in 2001 – as a condition for the approval of the Unilever-Ben & Jerrys merger. “Because following the merger, Unilever will hold two subsidiaries in the field of ice cream (Ben & Jerry’s and Strauss Ice Cream), the competition commissioner, with the consent of Unilever, ruled that it must not interfere and restrict Ben & Jerry’s Israel’s activities in any way.” .
Unilever acquired half of Ben & Jerrys in the 1990s and completed its takeover of the company in 2014.