Mars, Hershey Rely on Child Labor for Cocoa, Class Actions Say

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A Massachusetts woman is challenging Mars and Hershey to disclose their reliance on child labor in the production of their chocolate products.

In two child labor class action lawsuits filed yesterday, plaintiff Danell Tomasella says major chocolate candy companies Mars and Hershey owe it to consumers to disclose that their products contain cocoa produced in West Africa using child and slave labor.

For years, Tomasella claims, Mars and Hershey have been well aware that most of their cocoa suppliers rely on child labor and forced labor.

This fact is material to consumers who would never purchase a product if they knew child labor was in its supply chain, she says. Yet neither Mars nor Hershey discloses its reliance on child labor to consumers who purchase their chocolate products.

According to Tomasella, most of the largest companies like Mars and Hershey that purchase chocolate get it from West African sources that are known exploiters of child and slave labor.

Among several other sources, Tomasella cites a report by the Bureau of International Affairs of the U.S. Department of Labor confirming that cocoa beans produced in the Ivory Coast were obtained using child or slave labor. The United Nations has called out these producers for relying on practices formally recognized as the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

Tomasella says children producing the cocoa for Mars and Hershey products are “burning and clearing fields with machetes, spraying pesticides, using sharp tools to break open cocoa pods, and carrying heavy loads of cocoa pods and water.” She claims the children, some as young as five years old, are forced to work long hours, get no time off when they are sick, and are punished with physical abuse.

Over 1.1 million children in Ivory Coast were subject to practices like these between 2013 and 2014, according to survey research by the Payson Center for International Development at Tulane University.

The Ivory Coast cocoa sector draws child laborers from the surrounding countries, according to the Mars and Hershey class action lawsuits. Some children are kidnapped and sold into slavery, and others are sold into servitude by their own parents. Farmers who buy the children may refuse to let them leave the farm until they have worked off the price of their own purchase.

This action is at least the third such claim filed by Tomasella over allegations of child labor in the chocolate candy industry. Earlier this month, Tomasella filed a practically identical child labor class action lawsuit against Nestlé.

Nestlé has been aware of child labor practices in the African cocoa supply chain since at least as early as 2015, she says. The company allegedly claims the problem is getting better, while government reports reach the opposite conclusion.

In the Mars and Hershey class action lawsuits, Tomasella proposes to represent plaintiff Classes that consist of all persons who purchased Mars and Hershey chocolate products in Massachusetts during the four years preceding the filing of her complaints.

She seeks declarations by the court that Mars and Hershey have violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law and have been unjustly enriched, and injunctions barring the companies from continuing the allegedly unfair and deceptive marketing of their chocolate products. She also seeks an award of damages, attorney fees, and court costs, all with pre- and post-judgment interest.

Tomasella is represented by attorneys Hannah W. Brennan, Steve W. Berman and Elaine T. Byszewski of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The Mars and Hershey Child Labor Class Action Lawsuits are Tomasella v. Mars Inc., et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-10359-ADB, and Tomasella v. The Hershey Company, et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-10360, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

UPDATE: On April 19, 2018, Nestle USA Inc. and The Hershey Co. have asked a Massachusetts federal court to dismiss a couple of class action lawsuits alleging the companies failed to disclose information about using forced child labor in their cocoa supply chain.