Customers at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in New York City can be certain of two things at checkout: paying at least $6.50 for one scoop and paying only by credit card.
One of those is changing.
The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection announced on Thursday that it had entered into a settlement agreement with Van Leeuwen that requires the ice cream company to comply with the city’s cashless ban law and pay $33,500 in outstanding civil penalties. In total, Van Leeuwen had incurred more than $112,000 in penalties since the law was put in place, the city said.
The city said that Van Leeuwen has refused to comply with the law, which forbids businesses to accept only credit card payments, since it went into effect in November 2020. Van Leeuwen has 19 locations in New York City and another dozen nationwide.
In a statement, the city said it had received “dozens of consumer complaints” shortly after the ban went into effect. The Office of Administrative Trials, which handles violation summonses from 19 city agencies, found Van Leeuwen to be in violation of the cashless ban more than 90 times, according to the settlement agreement.
The company repeatedly failed to appear at the majority of the administrative hearings and failed to pay “some” of the outstanding penalties. The settlement was reported by Eater.
Van Leeuwen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
On Oct. 11, the city notified Van Leeuwen that it planned to seek an injunction in the New York State Supreme Court, “which prompted Van Leeuwen to finally and immediately comply,” according to the city’s statement.
“Cash is king, which is why the Cashless Ban Law was passed to protect the unbanked and underbanked in our city,” Mayor Eric Adams said in the statement. “We will not allow any business to take advantage of this vulnerable population or penalize customers just for wanting to use cash to pay for things.”
The mayor said the agreement with Van Leeuwen “sends a clear message that those who repeatedly violate this law will be held accountable.”
As part of the settlement, Van Leeuwen also agreed to remove all signage, stickers and placards indicating that they do not accept cash and that all New York City locations begin accepting cash as of Oct. 17.
Van Leeuwen also said in the agreement that it plans to install reverse ATMs, which dispense a debit card in exchange for cash, at certain New York City locations. None of the city’s locations may refuse to accept cash until they have installed the machines.
Pete Van Leeuwen, his brother Ben Van Leeuwen and their partner, Laura O’Neill, began selling ice cream in 2008 out of yellow trucks in New York City with flavors like organic Oregon peppermint, biodynamic single-estate Ceylon cinnamon, pistachio made with handpicked nuts from Sicily and vanilla with organic beans from Papua New Guinea.
Those trucks quickly multiplied across the city as the popularity of food trucks proliferated in the 2010s. But by 2020, Van Leeuwen was no longer just the upscale neighborhood ice cream truck: The company received $18.7 million in investment from the San Francisco private equity firm Nextworld Evergreen. According to its website, Van Leeuwen now has 33 brick-and-mortar storefronts across the country, including in Texas, Pennsylvania and California, with six more in the works, and has become a favorite among vegans for using nut milk alternatives.
