The battle for ice cream: Ben & Jerry’s Israel and Unilever Worldwide continue to quarrel

Ben & Jerrys Israel claims that the “new arrangement” that the global CEO of Unilever was talking about is illegal in Israel. For sales in Israel. According to him, the company is working to find a new arrangement by the end of the current year, in which the franchise of Avi Singer, the husband of Ben & Jerrys Israel, will end. This is an arrangement that will ostensibly allow the ice cream to be sold in Israel, without selling it in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.

Singer refused to submit to the company’s demands to boycott parts of the State of Israel, following which Ben & Jerrys announced in the United States that the contract with him would not be renewed at the end of 2022. Yesterday (Sunday) Singer said that “Unilever CEO’s scandalous statement breaks records “Hypocrisy and a lack of understanding of Israeli law, which explicitly states that it is not legally possible to continue selling in Israel without selling in Judea and Samaria. Any new arrangement that does not include sale in all areas of Israel means a violation of Israeli law.”

He added that “in his remarks, the CEO of Unilever confirms that Unilever will lead to the closure of an Israeli plant that refused to submit to a boycott of parts of the State of Israel. In the coming weeks, the Constitution Committee of the Knesset of Israel will approve the regulations of the boycott law approved last week by the Ministers of Finance and Justice. This will allow immediate sanctions against the company following what the CEO said.

Meanwhile, the Antitrust Commissioner (Competition Authority) Advocate Michal Halperin is expected to publish its decision on the alleged breach of Unilever’s agreement. In 2001, when Unilever acquired the global Ben & Jerrys, it needed the Antitrust Commissioner’s approval. As a result of the acquisition, the company was to own two subsidiaries in Israel: Strauss Ice Cream and Ben & Jerry’s Israel, and thus competition could be harmed. From the companies it owns.

Last July, Strum issued a letter to Halperin in which he claimed that Unilever’s sanctions on the Ben & Jerrys franchisee in Israel constituted a blatant violation of the terms of the merger between Unilever and Ben & Jerrys in Israel. For, in demanding not to sell Ben & Jerry’s ice creams in Judea and Samaria, there is an actual intervention in the company’s market share.