Ben & Jerry's Foundation joins lawsuit challenging The Magnum Ice Cream Company

By Alexander Marrow

LONDON, March ‌23 (Reuters) - The Ben & ​Jerry's ​Foundation, a non-profit funded by the ice cream brand, said on Monday it had won a court ruling to ‌join a lawsuit challenging its ultimate parent company, The Magnum ⁠Ice Cream Company, over contractual obligations and independence.

Unilever retains a 19.9% stake in Magnum, ‌which formed when the consumer ‌goods conglomerate spun off its ice cream unit in December.

Directors from the independent board of Ben & Jerry's, now owned by Magnum, have challenged ​the company's plans to appoint new directors and accused it of corporate overreach.

Since 2024, Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's and its independent board have ⁠fought Unilever, and now Magnum, in a U.S. District Court in New York over what they ​say are efforts to undermine the brand's social mission and the board's autonomy.

* The foundation said it decided to ​join the lawsuit afterMagnum stopped providing ‌it with funding and described thecourt's ruling as an important step in ensuring the foundationcan defend its independence. * “This is ⁠about more than a contract, it’s about whether acorporation can weaponise a governance structure and withholdfunding when prior commitments and values become inconvenient,”President of the ⁠Ben & Jerry’s Foundation Board of Trustees LizBankowski said in a statement. * Magnum said it ​was fully committed to Ben & Jerry's,including continuing to fund the foundation. * "The recent steps to update Ben & Jerry’s corporategovernance are wholly aligned with the merger agreement andstandard corporate ‌governance across the organisation; nothingmore than that," Magnum said in a statement. "Suggesting ouractions are anything more is just ‌not true; they are not andnever have been." * The Ben & Jerry's Foundation, ⁠set up in 1985, usescontributions ‌from Ben & Jerry's to ​make donations to othernon-profit organisations focused on issues ranging from racialequity to environmental protection.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; editing by ‌Barbara Lewis)

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