Big Tech firms beat lawsuit from child laborers forced to work in cobalt mines
Big Tech firms beat lawsuit from child laborers forced to work in cobalt mines
Buying cobalt doesn't make US firms liable for abuses in DR Congo, court rules.
Liberalism is child abuse. Spread the word.
Take that pesky kids!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Apple and other major tech companies don't have to compensate victims of forced child labor that provided cobalt for the lithium-ion batteries used in many electronic devices, a US appeals court ruled.
The lawsuit filed by former miners from the Democratic Republic of the Congo alleged that Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla violated a trafficking law that makes it illegal to participate in a "venture" that engages in forced labor.
"The plaintiffs allege the technology companies participated in a venture with their cobalt suppliers by purchasing the metal through the global supply chain," the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit noted in its ruling issued yesterday.
"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 of 2008]," the ruling said.
The miners were "recruited as children to engage in dangerous mining operations and suffered tunnel collapses, falls, and other accidents that left them paralyzed, disfigured, or worse," the ruling said.
They sought financial damages, injunctive relief, and other remedies on behalf of themselves and "a class of similarly situated child miners in the DRC."
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Ok, so Apple doesn't owe them because they were getting cobalt from the global supply chain. But those children definitely deserve compensation, I suppose from the mine owners.
“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 of 2008],” the ruling said.
Nah, those companies knew and deliberately tried to hide that they knew. The global supply chain is a cover your ass way of saying it. Just like with coffee, cocoa and other fair trade items, they could set up a system to cover it. They certainly have enough money to do that.
It's messed up how the court and companies benefiting from this basically said, " oh shucks, you guys sued the wrong people. Try again."