IRAdvocates Sues Apple for Allegedly Lying About Ethical Mineral Sourcing
International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates), an anti-forced labor advocacy group, filed suit last month against Apple, claiming the company engages in false and deceptive marketing of its products by touting the ethical sourcing of its minerals, while the actual sourcing of these minerals tells a different story.
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In a complaint at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Civil Division, IRAdvocates said: "Apple sources cobalt from companies that commit human and labor rights abuses; rely on forced and child labor; destroy the surrounding environment; and engage in corruption." The company also allegedly "sources tantalum from smelters that process conflict coltan linked to non-state armed groups responsible for war crimes and human rights abuses."
These sourcing practices cut against Apple's public claims that its products are "environmentally responsible and ethically sourced" and the "expectations they create in consumers," the complaint said. IRAdvocates brought the suit under the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act, which makes it illegal for "any person" to represent that goods "have a source" they don't have or state that goods are "of a particular standard, quality, grade, style, or model, if in fact they are of another."
The complaint specifically alleged that Apple's cobalt suppliers commit human and labor rights abuses, cause environmental harm and engage in "corrupt business practices." Reviewing Apple's list of cobalt suppliers, IRAdvocates noted that some of them, mainly global firms Umicore and GEM, source their cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"It is well-known that cobalt sourcing is fraught with human rights abuses and environmental harm," the complaint said, citing reports from "U.K. corporate watchdog Rights and Accountability in Development" and "DRC-based legal organization Centre d’Aide Juridico-Judiciaire."