Catherwood LibraryILR School

A U.S. District judge dismissed a class action lawsuit brought by eight Mali citizens against Nestle, Hershey, Cargill and other firms for engaging in child slavery on cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast. The court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove there was a traceable connection between the plantations they worked on and the seven defendant companies, as well as failing to explain the role of supply chain intermediaries, as the defendants did not oversee activity in areas where about 70% to 80% of the cocoa is produced. The plaintiffs had hoped to use the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to end the "system" where cocoa workers were lured as children to jobs that they were never paid for, and living under the threat of starvation if they refused to work. The defendant companies argued that they had been working on ending non-forced child labor in cocoa supply chains, but that the suit's overly broad theory would leave too many parties liable and raise prices for consumers and retailers. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled against a similar case last June brought under the Alien Tort Statute, and the decision was amongst others that would limit federal cases brought on behalf of labor abuses outside the country.