Ice Cream Maker Rebel Creamery Seeks Chapter 11 Amid Packaging Dispute

Rebel Creamery, the Utah-based low-carb ice cream brand sold at Walmart, Target and Kroger, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection weeks after a federal judge ordered it to surrender nearly $23.8 million £17.6 million) in profits to rival Van Leeuwen over an ice cream packaging dispute.

The filing, lodged on 14 August in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, lists between $10 million (£7.4 million) and $50 million (£37.1 million) in both assets and liabilities.

Van Leeuwen is listed among Rebel’s unsecured creditors with a disputed $23.785 million (£17.6 million) claim that Rebel is appealing. The bankruptcy follows a five-year legal battle that began in 2021, when Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream sued Rebel over what it alleged was deliberate copying of its distinctive pint packaging.

On 16 July, US District Judge Eric Komitee ruled in Van Leeuwen’s favour after a bench trial, finding Rebel liable for trade dress infringement, unfair competition and dilution. The dispute centred on Van Leeuwen’s distinctive packaging, which combines monochromatic pastel cardboard pints, matching lids, minimalist designs and black cursive lettering. Komitee found that Rebel used a near-identical colour scheme and script, with relatively minor differences used to communicate dietary information. The judge concluded that the similarities were likely to confuse consumers and that Rebel had copied the packaging intentionally.

The court ordered Rebel to stop selling products bearing trade dress likely to be confused with Van Leeuwen’s and required the company to redesign its packaging to create a ‘substantially different commercial impression’.

Van Leeuwen was also awarded $23.785 million (£17.6 million) in disgorged profits from Rebel’s sales of the infringing products.

‘The evidence at that trial left no doubt that Rebel infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade dress and did so intentionally,’ Komitee wrote.