Unilever Threatens To Cut Ben & Jerry's £4m Funding Over Pro-Palestinian Stance and Anti-Trump Messaging

Boardroom tensions have boiled over between Unilever and its famously outspoken ice cream brand, with the corporate giant now demanding a complete audit of Ben & Jerry's charitable giving.

The parent company, which currently funnels £3.75 million ($5 million) yearly into the ice cream maker's foundation based on sales profits, is threatening to freeze this funding entirely amidst a bitter dispute over activism.

According to Reuters, Unilever is threatening to halt donations to the foundation after the Ben & Jerry's board filed a lawsuit against Unilever in November claiming that their parent company has silenced and blocked attempts of social activism involving Palestinian refugees, protesting the war in Gaza, anti-Trump messages and the defunding of police.

Ben Cohen's Plans For a Takeover of The Company

The co-founder of the ice-cream company, Ben Cohen is now planning to make a bid to regain control of the company from Unilever after 25 years of partnership. Ben and his partner, Jerry Greenfield, sold the company to Unilever in 2000 after 22 years, but after attempts of blocking the social mission from the ice-cream company, Cohen is seeking for investors that can help him buy Ben & Jerry's back from the multinational.

It was stated in the sale that Ben & Jerry's would have an independent board, preventing Unilever from taking full control of it and now this decision could be paying dividends, as the board's decision to keep supporting different social movements has put their parent company in an uncomfortable situation that could lead to the sale Ben Cohen wants.

Unilever's Negative Stance Towards Pro-Social Justice Movements

According to The Times, Ben & Jerry made a lawsuit against Unilever claiming that they had breached the terms of the acquisition, in 2021 the ice-cream company decided to pull Ben & Jerry's from 'Occupied' Palestinian Territory alleging that it was 'inconsistent with their values' but just a year later Unilever decided to sell their operations in Israel to continue the presence of the company in the country.

This led to the lawsuit in 2022 where Unilever had to make a settlement payment to the co-founders after not respecting the decision from the independent board to not sell their product in Israel, after that Unilever made several efforts to dismantle the board of Ben & Jerry's and end once and for all the social movements support by the company and their foundation.

In 2024, Ben & Jerry's sued their parent company once again when Unilever tried to 'silence' the ice-cream company and stop their support of pro-Palestinian and anti-Trump movements, the lawsuit reads 'Unilever has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry's personnel, including chief executive David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever's efforts to silence the social mission.'

Now, Unilever's tactic has evolved. They are now planning to merge Ben & Jerry's, Breyers and Magnum under the same name to simplify the sale of ice cream across the world, instead of doing it under different names, if completed, this could remove Cohen from the equation and gain complete control of the company once and for all with its dissolution.