The US Court of Appeals has rejected a proposed class action brought by eight Malian citizens against seven chocolate companies, including Nestle, Hershey, and Mondelēz.

The suit, filed in 2021, claimed the plaintiffs were trafficked from Mali as children and forced to work on cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire. Furthermore, they alleged that the seven companies formed a “venture” to benefit from the cheap, forced child labor.

“we don’t have anything to do with what’s going on there”

The plaintiffs described living in poor conditions and facing constant threats of starvation if they refused to work. Moreover, they said they were recruited under false pretenses by men they did not know.

The lawyer who brought the civil action, Terence Collingsworth said in 2021:

“These companies are running a war on two fronts. They are telling the public; we’re working with cocoa farmers, we are giving them schooling and money, we’ve got this under control.” … “Then they stand up in court and say we’re just buying chocolate, we don’t have anything to do with what’s going on there. In their most recent filing, they say they are no different from a consumer of a chocolate bar.”

In a unanimous 3–0 decision, the court ruled that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated a direct link between their forced labor and the companies they sued. As reported by USA Today, Circuit Judge Justin Walker wrote:

“Circuit Judge Justin Walker, however, said the plaintiffs alleged at most they worked in areas that supplied cocoa to the defendants, which buy an estimated 70% of Ivorian cocoa, rather than specific farms that supplied the cocoa.”

“Is there a ‘possibility’ that at least some of the importers sourced cocoa from those farms? Yes,” Walker wrote. “But is it ‘plausible’? Not on this complaint.”

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