Ben & Jerry’s accused Unilever, its parent company, of firing its chief executive because he allowed the ice cream maker to speak out on political issues, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
In the filing, Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever had fired David Stever because of his commitment to the company’s social mission rather than his job performance. He had held the ice cream company’s top job since 2023.
“Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry’s personnel, including C.E.O. David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever’s efforts to silence the social mission,” Ben & Jerry’s said in the filing.
Unilever informed the Ben and Jerry’s board on March 3 that it was planning to remove and replace Mr. Stever as chief executive, the filing said. This was done without the approval of an advisory board, and went against an agreement the two companies signed when they merged in 2000, Ben & Jerry’s claimed in the filing. It added that, “under Mr. Stever’s tenure, Ben & Jerry’s outperformed Unilever’s ice cream portfolio.”
In 2024, sales at Ben & Jerry’s grew faster than at Magnum, another one of Unilever’s major ice cream brands, according to a Unilever presentation on its financial performance.
Under the acquisition deal between the two companies, Unilever agreed to let Ben & Jerry’s maintain an independent board to oversee the brand. This allowed Ben & Jerry’s to place “guardrails” around its social activism and gave its founders continued control of the company.
The amended complaint filed on Tuesday was part of a lawsuit that Ben & Jerry’s filed in November accusing Unilever of censorship and threats over the ice cream maker’s efforts to express support for Palestinian refugees.
That lawsuit claimed that Unilever tried to dismantle the ice cream maker’s independent board and to stop it from taking certain political stances, including calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, supporting U.S. students protesting civilian deaths in the territory and urging an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
Unilever did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last year, it said in a statement that it would strongly defend itself against the accusations in the lawsuit. Ben & Jerry’s also did not respond to a request for comment.
The founders of Ben & Jerry’s, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, have long been outspoken on social issues. Tensions flared in 2021, when Ben & Jerry’s said it would stop selling its ice cream in Israeli-occupied territories.
In March 2024, Unilever announced plans to spin off its ice cream unit, which includes Ben & Jerry’s. The move is expected to be completed at the end of this year, and, if successful, will end the 25-year, often rocky marriage between the two companies.
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