The Federal Court of Appeal in the United States of America (USA) have rejected the Democratic Republic of Congo’s legal action against giant tech company Apple as well as five others accused of benefiting from child labour in Congolese mines.
The DR Congo government accused tech companies Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft as well as Dell of “deliberately obscuring” their dependence on child labour, in effect abetting the exploitation of many children to ensure steady supplies of cobalt.
The government had signed complainants guardians of children who would have been killed in cobalt-mining operations.
However, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that buying cobalt in the global supply chain did not amount to “participation in a venture”.
The court’s ruling further adds that there was no proof that the tech giant companies had anything more than a buyer-seller relationship with suppliers or had the power to stop the use of child labour.
