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 major retailers including Walmart, Target and Kroger, filed for Chapter 11 protection Friday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, The Street reported.
The company listed between $10 million and $50 million in assets and the same amount in debts, according to its bankruptcy filing.
The move comes less than a month after Rebel was ordered to turn over $23.785 million in profits to Van Leeuwen, after US District Judge Eric Komitee found that the business intentionally 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 features pastel-colored, monochrome pints with matching lids, black script lettering and a minimalist look.
Komitee ordered Rebel to stop selling 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, according to the outlet.
“As a result, Rebel will be enjoined from selling the infringing products and required to redesign its packaging to avoid any further infringement.”
The judge found that Rebel’s packaging was similar enough to cause actual confusion among customers.
“Rebel will also be required to disgorge its profits from selling infringing pints,” Komitee wrote.
“Van Leeuwen is entitled to $23.785 million of Rebel’s profits from selling infringing ice cream pints,” the judge added.
Rebel denied the allegations and said its founders had not seen Van Leeuwen’s packaging when they developed their own design.
The company was founded in 2017, while Van Leeuwen — founded in 2008 — had introduced its current packaging in 2016.
Rebel’s pints began appearing in grocery stores in 2018 and were discovered by a Van Leeuwen employee later that year or in early 2019, according to court documents.
During the case, Komitee rejected Rebel’s explanation for how its packaging was developed.
The judge said Rebel’s testimony about the design process was fabricated and found that the similarity between the brands was unlikely to have happened by chance.
Rebel filed an appeal Aug. 12 challenging the $23.8 million judgment, two days before its bankruptcy filing.
Van Leeuwen was founded in New York City in 2008 by brothers Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill, who started the company with a yellow ice cream truck before opening their first shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2010.
The company has grown from its New York roots into a national chain, with roughly 100 scoop shops across the US as of 2026.
Both Rebel and Van Leeuwen were among the ice cream brands posting some of the strongest year-over-year growth in 2025, according to Instacart data reported last month.
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