The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently dismissed a child labor case against several major technology companies, declining to hold them culpable for allegedly supporting the use of child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Previously, former cobalt miners and their representatives had initiated a lawsuit against five prominent technology companies – Alphabet, Apple, Dell Technologies, Tesla, and Microsoft. This case was filed under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), which punishes anyone who knowingly profits from participating in a venture associated with trafficking crimes. The plaintiffs argued that these companies, through their procurement of cobalt in the global supply chain, were complicit with their suppliers in a venture that exploited child labor to obtain the metal.
Cobalt, a metal integral to the production of rechargeable batteries for devices such as smartphones and laptops, is abundantly found in the DRC, which supplies approximately two-thirds of the tech sector’s cobalt needs. The plaintiffs contended that these tech companies procured cobalt from international suppliers – foreign firms who allegedly engaged children in “informal mining” practices, characterized by hazardous conditions and high rates of fatal mine collapses.
The lawsuit detailed how Congolese children, in a bid to escape poverty and starvation, were forcefully engaged in artisanal mining operations, with the international suppliers even threatening to prohibit them from working elsewhere should they contemplate quitting. The complaint further alleged that these five tech giants were aware of these illicit activities yet continued to source cobalt from international suppliers. Consequently, the miners claimed, the tech companies had indirectly furthered their forced labor.
Despite these claims, the court decided to dismiss the lawsuit, upholding a prior ruling by a lower court. The court explained that for charges to be made under the TVPRA, it was necessary for the claimants to substantiate the tech companies’ direct engagement in ventures involving forced labor in the cobalt supply chain – a point they failed to establish. Furthermore, the court declared that the argument that “tech companies purchase an unspecified amount of cobalt from a supply chain originating in the DRC mines,” did not concretely establish such participation. They also noted that the companies could not face charges under common law, as even if they were involved in a venture with the chain suppliers, the “co-venturers are not sufficiently connected” to the suppliers’ activities to be held liable.
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