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By Brendan Pierson
and Guatemala.
The National Consumers League said in a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia that Starbucks “sources coffee beans and tea leaves from cooperatives and farms that have committed serious and documented violations of human rights and hard labor, in addition to the use of tough products for children. “hard and forced labor, as well as widespread sexual harassment and assault. “Evident.
Starbucks said the company itself would oppose those claims.
“We take these claims incredibly seriously and actively collaborate with farms to meet our standards,” he said.
The National Consumers League, a Washington, D. C. -based customer advocacy organization. founded in 1899, it said Starbucks’ false claims included that it “pledged to source 100 percent moral coffee” and “tea of 100 percent moral origin. “
In fact, the group said, investigations by journalists and governments have uncovered abuses at Starbucks suppliers around the world.
For example, last year, BBC journalists reported “rampant” sexual violence at a tea plantation in Kenya, and the Brazilian government filed a complaint against Brazil’s largest supplier of Starbucks coffee for “slavery-like” conditions. The TV show Dispatches documented the hard work of children on Guatemala’s coffee plantations, according to the lawsuit.
Starbucks said last year that it had halted purchases from the operator of the Kenya plantation. In 2020, it said that it had halted purchases from farms implicated in child labor for that harvest season.
It was not immediately clear what action it has taken in response to the Brazilian prosecutor’s action.
The National Consumers League said in its lawsuit that Starbucks continued to use suppliers after abuses were discovered, and even labeled them as moral based on alleged criteria it developed.
The organization accuses Starbucks of violating the District of Columbia’s customer coverage law and is asking the court to order Starbucks to prevent its allegedly misleading advertising and award unspecified damages. (Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis)