According to a recent report by Amnesty International and African Resources Watch, child laborers in the Democratic Republic of Congo mine a substantial portion of the world’s cobalt, an ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries used in portable devices. The report could lead to class action litigation against the tech industry, according to one practitioner.
Writing for the Global Supply Chain Blog, Sarah Rathke of Squire Patton Boggs points out that in August 2015 plaintiffs lawyers brought a putative class action against Costco Inc., alleging its not been transparent about forced labor in its supply chain. Similarly, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was hit with a lawsuit brought by a shareholder group demanding investigation into its worldwide supply chains and an alleged reliance on child labor. “This discovery about cobalt may result in consumer class actions in the U.S., similar to what U.S. food manufacturers and retailers have experienced,” Rathke warns.
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