Sources Contact Advanced Search Tutorials

An Interest In:

Web News this Week

Search Archive

Some of Our Sources

View All Sources

Help Webnuz

Referal links:

December 17, 2019 01:00 pm

Apple and Google Named In US Lawsuit Over Congolese Child Cobalt Mining Deaths

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A landmark legal case has been launched against the world's largest tech companies by Congolese families who say their children were killed or maimed while mining for cobalt used to power smartphones, laptops and electric cars, the Guardian can reveal. Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC by human rights firm International Rights Advocates on behalf of 14 parents and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The lawsuit accuses the companies of aiding and abetting in the death and serious injury of children who they claim were working in cobalt mines in their supply chain. The families and injured children are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Since cobalt is used in the rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products sold by these tech companies, the lawsuit argues that they all aided and abetted the mining companies that profited from the labor of children who were forced to work in dangerous conditions -- conditions that ultimately led to death and serious injury. "The court papers claim that Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Google and Tesla all have the authority and resources to supervise and regulate their cobalt supply chains and that their inability to do so contributed to the deaths and injuries suffered by their clients," reports The Guardian. The lawsuit says children were working illegally at a mine owned by UK mining company Glencore, which sold cobalt to Umicore, a Brussels-based metal and mining trader, which then sold battery-grade cobalt to several of the tech companies. Several other mines mentioned in the lawsuit are owned by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a major Chinese cobalt firm, which also supplies several tech companies.

Slashdot

Slashdot was originally created in September of 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it is owned by Geeknet, Inc..

More About this Source Visit Slashdot