Ben & Jerry's feud with its parent company, Unilever, has reached new heights. The ice cream operation says its CEO, David Stever, has been fired by Unilever—in breach of the merger agreement between the companies—for political reasons. Stever, who started his Ben & Jerry's career in 1988 as a tour guide and became CEO in 2023, was "unilaterally" removed and replaced by Unilever despite the merger agreement prohibiting just that, Ben & Jerry's says in a filing made this week as part of a lawsuit the ice cream brand first filed against its parent company in November, MSNBC reports. Ben & Jerry's says Unilever did not follow the required protocols and removed Stever in retaliation for political statements made by the brand, CNN reports.
The lawsuit was originally filed over Ben & Jerry's claim that Unilever is silencing its public statements on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza; back in 2022, the ice cream business also sued over the sale of its products in Israeli-occupied territories, but a judge in that case ultimately sided with Unilever. In its new filing, Ben & Jerry's says Unilever "has repeatedly threatened Ben & Jerry's personnel, including CEO David Stever, should they fail to comply with Unilever's efforts to silence the Social Mission." The ice cream brand says Unilever has also blocked it from issuing statements in support of Black History Month and detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, and blocked another statement about abortion, climate change, and universal healthcare because it mentioned President Trump. (More Ben stories.)
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