Rebel Creamery files for bankruptcy after losing – Business News
Ice cream maker Rebel Creamery has filed for bankruptcy after losing a packaging battle with rival Van Leeuwen — and being ordered to shell out $23.8 million.
The Utah-based Rebel, which sells its low-carb Rebel Ice Cream at main retailers together with Walmart, Target and Kroger, filed for Chapter 11 safety Friday within the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, The Street reported.
The company listed between $10 million and $50 million in belongings and the identical quantity in money owed, based on its bankruptcy submitting.
Rebel Creamery has filed for bankruptcy after losing a $23.8m packaging battle with rival Van Leeuwen. rebelcreamery.com
The transfer comes much less than a month after Rebel was ordered to show over $23.785 million in earnings to Van Leeuwen, after US District Judge Eric Komitee discovered that the business deliberately copied the New York ice cream company‘s packaging.
Van Leeuwen sued Rebel in 2021, arguing that the Utah company had copied its packaging.
Van Leeuwen’s design options pastel-colored, monochrome pints with matching lids, black script lettering and a minimalist look.
Komitee ordered Rebel to stop promoting the infringing packaging and redesign its pints.
“The evidence at trial left no doubt that Rebel infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade dress and did so intentionally,” Komitee wrote, based on the outlet.
The Utah-based ice cream maker was discovered to have deliberately copied Van Leeuwen’s pastel-colored packaging. Brian Zak/NY Post
“As a result, Rebel will be enjoined from selling the infringing products and required to redesign its packaging to avoid any further infringement.”
The decide discovered that Rebel’s packaging was related enough to trigger precise confusion amongst clients.
“Rebel will also be required to disgorge its profits from selling infringing pints,” Komitee wrote.
Rebel appealed the judgement earlier than submitting for bankruptcy and mentioned its founders had not seen Van Leeuwen’s packaging. rebelcreamery.com
“Van Leeuwen is entitled to $23.785 million of Rebel’s profits from selling infringing ice cream pints,” the decide added.
Rebel denied the allegations and mentioned its founders had not seen Van Leeuwen’s packaging after they developed their own design.
The company was based in 2017, whereas Van Leeuwen — based in 2008 — had launched its present packaging in 2016.
Van Leeuwen, based in New York City in 2008, now has roughly 100 scoop outlets throughout the US. Tamara Beckwith/New York Post
Rebel’s pints started showing in grocery shops in 2018 and have been found by a Van Leeuwen worker later that 12 months or in early 2019, based on courtroom paperwork.
During the case, Komitee rejected Rebel’s clarification for how its packaging was developed.
The decide mentioned Rebel’s testimony concerning the design course of was fabricated and located that the similarity between the manufacturers was unlikely to have occurred by probability.
Rebel filed an appeal Aug. 12 difficult the $23.8 million judgment, two days earlier than its bankruptcy submitting.
Van Leeuwen was based in New York City in 2008 by brothers Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill, who began the company with a yellow ice cream truck earlier than opening their first store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2010.
The company has grown from its New York roots into a national chain, with roughly 100 scoop outlets throughout the US as of 2026.
Both Rebel and Van Leeuwen have been among the many ice cream manufacturers posting some of the strongest year-over-year growth in 2025, based on Instacart information reported final month.
