SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) – Nestle can’t use the Anti-SLAPP Law to shield it from a class action lawsuit alleging the company misleads customers about the use of child and slave labor to harvest cocoa in West Africa.
A federal judge in San Diego ruled June 17 that inclusion of a web address on Nestle product labels does not make the company’s advertising protected under the Anti-SLAPP Law, a tool used by defendants who claim lawsuits are attempting to chill their right to free speech.
The ruling will allow the case to move forward. It was filed more than a year ago by Coast Law Group, Schonbrun Seplow and Reese LLP.
The case says Nestle has been aware of child and slave labor in its supply chain for more than a decade.
"Notwithstanding knowing full well that its chocolate is primarily procured from farms using the worst forms of child labor, Nestle slaps bogus 'seals' on its products claiming its cocoa is 'sustainably sourced,' 'certified' and 'supports' or 'helps' farmers when it knows the opposite is true,” the lawsuit says.
Nestle pointed to the Nestle Cocoa Plan website, claiming its statements about combating child and slave labor brought the case into the scope of the Anti-SLAPP Law because they concern an issue of public interest.
Nestle included the web address on its packaging. The argument failed, Judge James Lorenz wrote.
“Defendant’s product labels are not about environmental sustainability and labor conditions in general,” Lorenz wrote. “They refer to Defendant’s environmental and labor-related business operations specifically.
“Accordingly, in context, the reference to the website does not negate the purely commercial statements on the product labels.”