Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell and Tesla have been sued by a human rights group on behalf of families of children killed or injured while mining the cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is used in their products.
In the class-action lawsuit, International Rights Advocates (IRA) claims the companies “aided and abetted” a supply chain for cobalt — a metal critical for smartphones and electric vehicles — that forces children to work in dangerous conditions in the DRC.
“Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla all have specific policies claiming to prohibit child labour in their supply chains,” said IRA in the suit which was filed in a district court in Columbia, Ohio. “Their failure to actually implement these policies to stop forced child labour in cobalt mining is an intentional act to avoid ending the windfall of getting cheap cobalt.”