{"id":1595214,"date":"2022-08-08T17:39:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T21:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1595214"},"modified":"2022-08-08T17:39:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T21:39:59","slug":"u-s-judge-weighs-ben-jerrys-claims-against-owner-over-israeli-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-judge-weighs-ben-jerrys-claims-against-owner-over-israeli-business\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. judge weighs Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s claims against owner over Israeli business"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-judge-weighs-ben-jerrys-claims-against-owner-over-israeli-business%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1595214&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>By Jessica DiNapoli and Jonathan Stempel<\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) \u2013     A U.S. judge on Monday appeared skeptical that Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s deserved an immediate injunction against its parent Unilever Plc to restrict the marketing of its ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s said was against its values.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter said at a court hearing in Manhattan that he was unsure Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s had shown it faced \u201cimminent harm\u201d following Unilever\u2019s June 29 sale of the ice cream maker\u2019s Israeli business to local licensee Avi Zinger.<\/p>\n<p>The unusual dispute shows the challenges Unilever faces as it encourages its brands, which number more than 400, to have social missions that the company says help drive sales.<\/p>\n<p>Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s independent directors sued Unilever on July 5, nearly a year after the maker of Half Baked and Cherry Garcia faced a backlash by deciding to end sales in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories because it was \u201cinconsistent\u201d with its values.Although the lawsuit also sought to stop the sale altogether, Monday\u2019s hearing focused on whether Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s deserved a temporary injunction barring Zinger from selling new or rebranded products, using its English language trademarks.<\/p>\n<p>Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s lawyer Shahmeer Halepota said in court that Zinger could produce new products with the \u201cexact opposite stance,\u201d causing consumer confusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of Peace Pops, you could make \u2018Tank Pops,&#8217;\u201d Halepota said, and shoppers would see both walking down a grocery store aisle. <\/p>\n<p>The judge did not immediately rule, but told a Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s lawyer: \u201cI don\u2019t hear anything saying that there is anything imminent. It doesn\u2019t seem \u2026 anything\u2019s going to happen in the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did not say when he would rule.<\/p>\n<p>When Unilever bought Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s in 2000, it let the brand\u2019s board retain primary responsibility to oversee the ice cream maker\u2019s social mission. Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s board said the sale to Zinger undermined its right to do that. The two Unilever appointees dissented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an American institution that for the last 40 years has built its credibility on this authenticity of social mission,\u201d Halepota said. <\/p>\n<p>Unilever, in contrast, has said it retained the right to make operational decisions for Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s, and that the sale could not be undone because it has irrevocably closed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is just no reason to believe \u2026 that the continued sale of ice cream could cause irreparable harm,\u201d Unilever\u2019s lawyer David Marriott said.<\/p>\n<p>Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s sales topped 1 billion euros (US $1.02 billion) for the first time last year.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Furman, who helped build the business and served on Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s board for about 40 years, said the company hadn\u2019t sued Unilever before, but once considered it after finding quality issues in the ice cream, which were later resolved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have our fingers in \u2013 that\u2019s part of the job \u2013 to be vigilant and concerned about everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s said Unilever had frozen compensation for the independent directors. [L1N2ZF1OZ]\n<p>Before Monday\u2019s hearing, two weeks of mediation to reach an out-of-court settlement broke down. <\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; editing by Grant McCool)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2735563\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI770S3-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI770S3-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2735564\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI770S4-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI770S4-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jessica DiNapoli and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) \u2013 A U.S. judge on Monday appeared skeptical that Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s deserved an immediate injunction against its parent Unilever Plc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1595214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}