Ben & Jerry’s is stepping up an attack on parent company Unilever that was sparked by the issue of selling ice cream in the Israeli-occupied territories of the Middle East.
The board of Ben & Jerry’s had filed a lawsuit against Unilever over the issue last month. Now it’s saying that the disagreement with Unilever goes beyond the Israel issue, to the core of Ben & Jerry’s identity.
“If left unaddressed, Unilever’s actions will undermine our social mission and the essential integrity of the brand, which threatens our reputation, and ultimately, our business as a whole,” board chair Anuradha Mittal said in a statement quoted in the Wall Street Journal.
Ben & Jerry’s had declared last year that it would not allow its ice cream to be sold in the occupied territories – a decision that Unilever reversed on June 28, prompting the lawsuit days later.
The legal issue is whether the decision to sell in the occupied territories is part of a “social mission” or is one of the company’s “financial and operational decisions.” The former is the province of Ben & Jerry’s independent board, but the latter is under Unilever’s purview.
