Dive Brief:
- The Supreme Court has rejected a bid from Nestle, Archers Daniel Midland, and Cargill to drop a lawsuit concerning child slavery allegedly used to harvest cocoa in Ivory Coast.
- The plaintiffs, former child slaves from Mali brought to Ivory Coast to harvest cocoa, claimed the companies aided and abetted human rights violations by providing financial and technical assistance to Ivory Coast farmers, though the companies allegedly knew those farmers were using child slaves. The plaintiffs said the companies were able to secure lower prices for cocoa by doing so.
- The Supreme Court upheld the December 2014 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was the original refusal to dismiss the Ivory Coast child slavery lawsuit.
Dive Insight:
In the past, U.S. companies have had success fighting lawsuits, concerning alleged crimes on international soil, per a 2013 ruling that complicated the process by which plaintiffs could sue companies in these cases. In 2013, the judge dismissed a case that alleged a company was aiding state-sponsored torture and murder in Nigeria because the crime must "touch and concern" U.S. territory "with sufficient force to displace the presumption," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote at the time. Not all judges have interpreted and applied the ruling of that case in the same way.
Dry spells last year harmed cocoa crops in both Ivory Coast and Ghana, which has led to increases in cocoa prices.
Nestle announced in November that its Thai seafood suppliers engaged in labor abuse, following an internal investigation that lasted a year.
"Nestle said it would post the reports online — as well as a detailed yearlong solution strategy throughout 2016 — as part of ongoing efforts to protect workers. It has promised to impose new requirements on all potential suppliers and train boat owners and captains about human rights, possibly with a demonstration vessel and rewards for altering their practices. It also plans to bring in outside auditors and assign a high-level Nestle manager to make sure change is underway," according to the Associated Press.