A recent U.S. court ruling found America’s biggest tech companies, Apple, Alphabet Inc. (parent company of Google), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla cannot be held responsible for child labor found in their cobalt supply chains. The court stated that the companies had an “ordinary buyer-seller transaction” with their suppliers in the DRC.
This 3-0 decision is a setback for advocacy groups looking to hold big businesses accountable for modern slavery found in their supply chains. Cobalt is a critical mineral in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and electronic devices and the DRC has over 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves.
Recently, the demand for cobalt has grown exponentially as countries try to make a green transition and become carbon neutral. The plaintiffs include four former miners and legal representatives of child miners who lost their lives or suffered major injuries while mining cobalt in the DRC. The ruling stated that many actors in the cobalt supply chain perpetuated labor trafficking and abuse, from labor brokers to the DRC government.
However, the court found that issuing an injunction to these 5 companies would not stop child labor from entering the supply chain as the injunction would not hold the direct perpetrators of child labor and abuse accountable. Contrary to the court’s opinion, advocacy groups and the plaintiffs feel absolving the companies sends the wrong message.
Despite the ruling, Terry Collingsworth, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said they were “far from finished seeking accountability.” When asked for comment, Dell released a statement saying it was committed to upholding the human rights of workers throughout its supply chain and did not knowingly source products made with child labor.
Google had no comment and Apple, Microsoft, Tesla remained silent. In solidarity, Freedom United stands with the plaintiffs in accusing the five companies of joining exploitative and abusive cobalt suppliers in a “forced labor” venture and in seeing them as complicit in the crimes through the purchase of child labor tainted cobalt.
Freedom United stands beside the plaintiffs in this case asking for tech giants to ensure slavery-free supply chains. Too often private and public sectors are not held accountable for the human rights abuses in their supply chains.
