Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla were named in a federal class-action suit filed in Washington on 15 December 2019 that accuses the companies of knowingly benefiting from child labor that caused the deaths and injuries of children working in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The complaint, brought by the human-rights group International Rights Advocates, seeks damages and a medical fund for 14 Congolese families who say their children were killed or maimed while mining the mineral essential to the lithium-ion batteries that power American laptops, phones, and electric cars.
The suit: forced labor, collapsed tunnels, $2-a-day pay
The 79-page filing describes boys as young as six descending hand-dug shafts that plunge up to 30 meters underground. Rocks rich in cobalt are bagged, dragged to the surface, and sold to middlemen who eventually deliver the ore to subsidiaries of the five tech giants. According to the complaint, at least six children died when tunnels caved in between 2014 and 2019. Others were left paralyzed or lost limbs after accidents or from carrying crushing loads. Wages ranged from two to three dollars a day, the families say, and no safety gear was provided.
IRA lead counsel Terry Collingsworth said the companies had “specific knowledge” that their cobalt supply chains depend on cheap child labor yet continued to order ever-larger shipments. “These children were sacrificed so Americans could have cheaper phones and ‘green’ cars,” Collingsworth told reporters outside the courthouse. The suit invokes the Trafficking Victims Protection Reimbursement Act, a 2008 statute that allows foreign nationals to sue U.S. firms that profit from forced labor.
How cobalt fuels the U.S. tech boom
More than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt is dug up in the southern DRC, a region plagued by conflict and ranked among the poorest on earth. After extraction the ore is trucked to refineries in neighboring countries, then shipped to battery makers in China and South Korea that count Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla among their biggest clients. Global demand for the silvery-blue metal has tripled since 2010, driven by the surge in smartphones and by Tesla’s push to mass-produce electric vehicles.
Industry analysts estimate that each smartphone battery contains about eight grams of refined cobalt, while a single Tesla Model S needs more than thirteen kilograms. Prices soared above $90,000 a tonne in early 2018 before slipping, but even at today’s lower levels the trade is worth billions. None of that wealth, the lawsuit argues, has reached the miners who dig the raw material by hand.
Companies promise audits, cut off offending suppliers
Apple, Dell, and Google each released statements within hours of the suit’s filing. “We are committed to upholding the highest standards of human rights across our supply chain,” Apple said, noting that it published a list of its cobalt refiners in 2017 and removed six that failed third-party audits. Dell said it has “zero tolerance for child labor” and requires suppliers to source minerals ethically. Google pledged to “continue improving industry-wide traceability,” pointing to its membership in the Responsible Minerals Initiative, a trade group that certifies smelters.
Neither Microsoft nor Tesla answered repeated requests for comment, though Tesla’s 2018 impact report says the carmaker “has a policy against the use of child labor and performs due diligence” on mineral sourcing. The plaintiffs counter that such policies are largely cosmetic because suppliers can shuffle paperwork while still buying from artisanal mines.
A wider push for ‘clean’ cobalt
The court action lands as American and European regulators tighten scrutiny of supply chains. Earlier this year a group of tech and auto firms, including Ford and Volkswagen, joined the Cobalt for Development project that funds schools and health clinics near mine sites. Apple has promised to buy cobalt only from audited large-scale mines starting in 2020, and Dell says it is testing blockchain tracking to follow each bag of ore from pit to refinery.
Yet watchdogs warn the fixes barely dent a shadow economy that employs an estimated 40,000 children. “Voluntary audits will not end child labor,” said Seema Joshi, head of business and human rights at Amnesty International USA. “Companies need to invest in alternative livelihoods for families, not just switch suppliers when bad headlines appear.” The DRC government, hobbled by corruption and regional insurgencies, has pledged to formalize artisanal mining but lacks funds to police thousands of remote pits.
What the families want
The plaintiffs are not seeking a specific dollar amount, but they ask the court to compel each defendant to fund lifelong medical care, lost earnings, and rehabilitation for injured children. They also want the companies to finance “safe and sustainable” economic projects in their villages so families are not forced to send children underground. “We want these big companies to see us, to know our pain,” said one guardian, identified only as Jane Doe 1, in a sworn statement. “My nephew went into the mine healthy and came out in a box so that a phone can vibrate in America.”
A trial date has not been set, and the firms are expected to challenge jurisdiction. If the case survives preliminary motions, lawyers say depositions of supply-chain managers and on-the-ground audits could begin in 2020. Whatever the outcome, the litigation has already peeled back the polished marketing of Silicon Valley and Detroit, revealing the human cost of the rechargeable age.
