A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit aiming to hold five major technology companies liable over their alleged use of child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The lawsuit named Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Dell Technologies, and Google’s parent company Alphabet as defendants.
The plaintiffs—comprising 16 former miners and representatives of child miners—sued the tech companies for participating in a “forced labor” venture with their suppliers through the purchase of cobalt.
Cobalt is an essential metal for producing the lithium-ion batteries that power modern electronics. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s cobalt comes from Congo.
The plaintiffs claimed that the companies buy cobalt from international suppliers, whose subsidiaries exploit and perpetuate informal mining in Congo. Many of these informal miners are children.
The 16 plaintiffs also included representatives of five children who were killed in cobalt mining operations.
They claimed that the companies had “deliberately obscured” their dependence on child labor, including many children pressured into work by hunger and extreme poverty, to ensure their growing need for the metal would be met.
“Purchasing an unspecified amount of cobalt through the global supply chain is not ‘participation in a venture’ within the meaning of the TVPRA (Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act),” it stated.
Circuit Judge Neomi Rao said the plaintiffs had legal standing to seek damages but did not show the companies had more than a buyer-seller relationship with suppliers or had the power to stop the use of child labor.
“The plaintiffs have not adequately alleged the Tech Companies participated in a venture because there is no shared enterprise between the Companies and the suppliers who facilitate forced labor.
“The Tech Companies own no interest in their suppliers. Nor do the Tech Companies share in the suppliers’ profits and risks,” the judge stated.
Ms. Rao said that many other parties are responsible for labor trafficking, including labor brokers, other cobalt consumers, and the Congo government.
According to the ruling, the only control apparent in the complaint “is the tech companies’ right to stop purchasing cobalt.”
“Even if we assume that allegations of market power could show participation in a venture, the plaintiffs’ allegations do not suffice to support this theory,” the judge said.
“Moreover, the plaintiffs offer no facts to suggest how much of the suppliers’ cobalt was purchased by the Tech Companies as opposed to other members of the venture or other global buyers.
“Without more specific allegations, the question is whether the tech companies’ purchasing an unspecified amount of cobalt from a supply chain originating in DRC mines plausibly demonstrates ‘participation in a venture’ with anyone engaged in forced labor in that supply chain. We hold that it does not,” she added.
The appeals court’s decision upheld a November 2021 dismissal by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington.
The cobalt suppliers included Eurasian Resources Group, Glencore, Umicore, and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, court papers show. None of them was named as a defendant.
