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A major tech company, including a smartphone manufacturer, has won an appeal in a lawsuit that held it liable for alleged child labor in a cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
CNN
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit that held Apple, Google, Tesla and other big tech companies liable for their alleged use of child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that although the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit in 2019 had a legal right to sue (known as “standing”), the plaintiffs cannot pursue their claims in the lawsuit. It said that the necessary legal elements were not met. companies.
“Purchasing unspecified amounts of cobalt through a global supply chain is not ‘participating in a venture’ within the meaning of the Federal Anti-Trafficking Act,” Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote in the court’s ruling. stated in the judgment.
“Plaintiffs do not sufficiently allege that the high-tech companies participated in the venture because there is no joint venture between the high-tech companies and the suppliers who facilitate forced labor,” Rao wrote. “High-tech companies have no interest in their suppliers. Nor do they share in the profits or risks of their suppliers.”
However, Rao said, “Cobalt suppliers and their subsidiaries are actively recruiting and forcing children to work to meet high-tech companies’ growing demand for cobalt.”
Cobalt is a key component of lithium-ion batteries found in nearly all rechargeable electronic devices. Two-thirds of the world’s cobalt comes from Congo.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., had previously dismissed the case. However, a group of plaintiffs, including former minor miners injured in cobalt mining accidents and parents of children killed while working in cobalt mines, filed suit with the Court of Appeals in 2021 seeking to reopen the case. .
Defendants in the case were Apple, Alphabet (which owns Google), Dell Technologies, Microsoft, and Tesla.
The class action lawsuit was brought on behalf of plaintiffs by an international advocacy group that alleges that children have been exploited and harmed in mining operations linked to mining companies Glencore, Umicore, and Huayou Cobalt. was. All defendants. None of these companies were listed as defendants.
Michelle Toh contributed to this report.