A U.S. federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that five major technology companies were involved in the use of child labour in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The lawsuit names Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Dell Technologies, and Google’s parent company Alphabet.
The court ruled Tuesday that a company’s purchases of cobalt do not constitute forced child labour.
District Judge Neomi Rao also said the plaintiffs had failed to prove that the defendant companies had any influence to prevent child labour in the mines.
Terry Collingsworth, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Reuters: “We are far from being accountable,” adding that the ruling could be appealed.
The lawsuit was first brought in 2019 by International Rights Advocates, a human rights group representing child workers injured while working in Congo’s cobalt mines and the families of children killed in the mines.
The case was dismissed by a lower court in 2021 and subsequently appealed.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces 60% of the world’s supply of cobalt, an important mineral used in the manufacture of most electronic devices.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, at least 25,000 children work in dangerous conditions in DRC’s cobalt mines.