Chocolate Makers Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over Forced Child Labor

Nestlé, Cargill, Hershey, and other major chocolate makers have been hit with another class action lawsuit, this time by former workers who say they were trafficked and forced into child labor to produce cocoa.

The eight plaintiffs claim that they were taken across the border as children to the Cote D’Ivoire and enslaved at cocoa farms that work to feed the demands of major United States chocolate makers. The class action lawsuit points out that, despite promises by U.S. chocolate makers to the contrary, a study found that 1.56 million child laborers were involved in the harvest of cocoa as recently as 2020.

The Supreme Court has been asked to considered whether U.S. chocolate makers can be held responsible for the alleged child slavery. However, courts in Canada are already hearing class action lawsuits from consumers who say they never would have bought the chocolate if they knew about the slavery used to harvest the cocoa.

In the forced child labor class action lawsuit, each plaintiff describes being tricked into going to work on cocoa plantations as children. They say they were misled by recruiters in Mali then trafficked across the border to the Cote D’Ivoire. They claim they were forced to work without pay and weren’t given travel documents to return home.

“Plaintiffs’ legal team easily and routinely found children using machetes, applying chemicals and performing other hazardous tasks on cocoa plantations producing for one or more of Defendants,” states the chocolate makers class action lawsuit, which includes pictures of children on cocoa plantations taken between 2017 through 2019.

The class action lawsuit accuses Nestlé, U.S.A., Cargill, Barry Callebaut USA, Mars, Olam Americas, Inc., and the Hershey Company of knowingly profiting from the continued use of forced child labor in the production of cocoa for at least two decades. The companies allegedly use cocoa produced using forced child labor because it’s cheaper, since the companies aren’t forced to pay adult wages or provide adequate safety equipment.

“Enough is enough!” said the Executive Director of International Rights Advocates Terry Collingsworth in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Allowing the enslavement of African children in 2021 to harvest cocoa for major multinational companies is outrageous and must end.”

Indeed, despite promises by chocolate makers dating back to 2001, child slavery is still being used by the U.S. companies stationed in West Africa. The defendants in this class action lawsuit signed an agreement promising to end the use of child labor by 2005; however, the problem persists and the companies have moderated their promise – pledging to reduce the use of forced child labor to make chocolate by 70 percent by 2025, says EcoWatch.

The plaintiffs seek to represent others in Mali, West Africa who were trafficked and forced into slavery while under the age of 16 in the cocoa producing region of Côte d’Ivoire between Feb. 15, 2011 and the present.

The class action lawsuit says that the plaintiffs and Class Members cannot take their legal claims to court in the countries in this region because of rampant corruption and lack of judicial infrastructure. The plaintiffs also point out that the U.S. holds itself out as a bastion of human rights and has laws that allow those forced into child labor to hold the defendant chocolate makers accountable.

Do you think chocolate makers should be held responsible for the use of forced child labor to make its chocolate products? Tell us in the comment section below!

The lead plaintiffs and proposed Class Members are represented by Terrence Collingsworth of International Rights Advocates.

The Chocolate Forced Child Labor Class Action Lawsuit is Coubaly, et al. v. Nestlé, U.S.A., Case No. 1:21-cv-00386, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Starbucks, Mars, Quaker Class Action Alleges Unethical Child Labor
• Do You Qualify: Asbestos-Related Cancers & Diseases Lawsuit 
• Hershey’s Chocolate Child Labour Lawsuit Filed
• Belviq Cancer Lawsuit Investigation