SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - A new filing in a child labor lawsuit against Nestle over cocoa harvesting poses a threat to Nestle.
Plaintiff lawyers at Reese LLP and Schonbrun Seplow have asked a San Diego federal judge to certify their class action, seeking injunctive relief as well as damages for a proposed class of Californians.
Class members would be those in California who have bought eight Nestle products, including morsels, powder and hot cocoa.
"As the demand for sustainably and ethically sourced goods has skyrocketed, cocoa 'sustainability' labeling claims has too - outselling cocoa without such claims more than 3 to 1.7 To maintain its competitive market share, and despite its knowledge of its child labor problem, Nestlé nonetheless puts sustainability labeling on the Products at issue," the motion filed Jan. 19 says.
"These statements are deceptive because the chocolate is not sustainable since the cocoa in the Products comes from child and slave labor and is also the result of environmentally detrimental practices."
Judge James Lorenz already refused Nestle's motion to dismiss, and the company's motion to reconsider. Should he certify a class, it could lead to a multimillion-dollar verdict at trial, if the case were to not be settled.
The case, filed in May 2019, claims customers bought products based on labels that stated Nestle “supports farmers for better chocolate” and that the company was working to “help improve the lives of cocoa farmers.”
The case is one of many using California consumer protection laws to punish companies that buy cocoa from West Africa, where some cocoa plantations use child and slave labor.
Nestle’s reconsideration motion said it has dedicated millions of dollars to the Nestle Cocoa Plan and was the first company to introduce a Child Labor Monitoring & Remediation System.
Nestle said it built or refurbished 49 schools, delivered school supply kits to 19,152 children and trained 157 groups of farmers on improved labor practices.
Plaintiff lawyers call these measures "band aid on the problem (Nestle) has been a driving force behind."