Federal court clears Big Tech of child trafficking violations despite child labor in cobalt mining

The Gold Report Staff

March 11, 2024

The Gold Report recently covered the serious issue of child slave labor which is used to supply raw materials for EV batteries and technology used by Big Tech companies. We now look at the legal technicalities employed to avoid liability for the dangerous work conditions to which children are subjected, sometimes leading to paralysis.

Buying from global supply chain exonerates Big Tech

Too far removed in the supply chain, five Big Tech companies, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla, have been found not guilty of violating child trafficking laws in a lawsuit filed by exploited children laboring in cobalt mines or their representatives. As reported by ARS Technica senior IT reporter Jon Brodkin, the court ruled that purchasing metals in the global supply chain does not make one liable for how it was initially obtained:

A US District Court previously dismissed the lawsuit, and a panel of three appeals court judges unanimously affirmed the dismissal 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. "We therefore affirm the district court's dismissal of the complaint." [Emphases added.]

We don't actually want to be doing this

The tech companies stated, in a brief, that the defendants are working to eradicate child labor in the network of their suppliers and the injuries sustained by the children cannot be traced back to the defendant's conduct:

. . . the defendants "have established policies and due-diligence practices to eradicate child labor in the international network of their suppliers," and that the "alleged injuries are not fairly traceable" to any of the defendants' conduct.

Dangerous even for adults

In their ruling, the judges for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit described injuries sustained by the children including tunnel collapses, falls, and injuries that left them paralyzed, disfigured, or worse:

The plaintiffs in John Doe 1, et al. v. Apple Inc., et al. include four former miners, seven legal representatives of former miners who are still children, and five representatives of child laborers who were killed in cobalt mining operations, 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. [Emphasis added.]

Trapped through “advances”

The judges explained that the children began mining to avoid starvation and support their families. However, once they began working, they were trapped in a “debt bondage situation” from which they could not extricate themselves:

"The forced labor was organized or overseen by agents or subsidiaries of the Tech Companies' cobalt suppliers," judges wrote. Plaintiffs "began mining at a young age to avoid starvation and to support their families," and say they were pressured to remain in the mines despite unsafe and exploitative working conditions.

"Several plaintiffs insist they were trapped in a 'debt bondage situation' where 'sponsors' gave out food and funds as an advance but deducted the amount of the advance, along with other costs, from the plaintiffs' earnings when the cobalt was sold," the ruling said. "Other miners were told that if they did not continue working in the mines, they would be blacklisted and barred from working at any other mines in the region." [Emphases added.]

Disappointing ruling

Beautiful Flower on X (formerly Twitter) provided her synopsis of the court case, pointing out that the judges agreed that the defendants had standing in the case, but they did not name any of the suppliers as defendants.

Friends of the Congo were upset by the ruling, as the group’s tweet emphasized its contention that the wrong side won.

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