Lawsuits

Overview

Lawsuits against Hershey for child labor have been primarily class-action lawsuits filed in the U.S. and Canada, often alongside other major chocolate companies like Nestlé and Cargill. These lawsuits generally allege that Hershey's supply chain knowingly uses forced child labor for cocoa harvesting in West Africa, misleading consumers about the ethical sourcing of its products. 

Lawsuits With Other Chocolate Companies

Case details: 

In 2015, consumer class-action lawsuits were filed against Hershey, Nestlé, and Mars in California, with similar suits filed later in Massachusetts.

Allegation: 

The suits alleged the companies misled consumers by failing to disclose their reliance on suppliers using child and slave labor to produce cocoa from the Ivory Coast.

Outcome: 

Federal judges dismissed these cases, ruling that consumer protection laws did not require companies to disclose such information to customers. The dismissals were upheld on appeal. 

Lawsuits By Former Workers(2021)

Case details: 

In 2021, the human rights organization International Rights Advocates (IRA) filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of eight Malian men who were trafficked as children and forced to harvest cocoa in Ivory Coast. The suit named Hershey along with other major cocoa companies.

Allegation: 

The former slaves alleged that the companies aided and abetted child slavery by providing resources to farms in West Africa.

Outcome: 

The case was dismissed by a federal court in June 2022. The court found that the plaintiffs had not sufficiently established a direct connection between their forced labor on specific farms and the defendant companies, which source from a broad network of suppliers. A federal appeals court rejected a subsequent appeal in July 2025. 

Lawsuits against Hershey's and Rainforest Alliance(2024)

Case details: 

In January 2024, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Hershey and the Rainforest Alliance. 

Allegation: 

The suit alleges that the Rainforest Alliance's certification process for "ethically sourced" cocoa is flawed and that Hershey misleads consumers by using the Rainforest Alliance's logo on products that may still involve child labor.

Current status: 

This lawsuit remains active. 

Canadian Class-Action 

Case details: 

In 2019, a Canadian class-action lawsuit was filed against Hershey by the law firm Koskie Minsky LLP on behalf of consumers.

Allegation: 

The suit alleges that Hershey deceives Canadian consumers by failing to disclose that its cocoa is produced using child labor and slavery.

Current status: 

Hershey has challenged the lawsuit, but a British Columbia Supreme Court judge denied the company's application to dismiss the action on jurisdictional grounds in June 2022. 

Outcome of Dismissed Cases

Courts have repeatedly thrown out lawsuits attempting to directly link Hershey and other companies to specific instances of child slavery abroad.

Judges have ruled that U.S. laws, particularly those invoked in these cases, do not extend liability to corporations for human rights abuses that occur within complex overseas supply chains.

In the case of consumer-based suits, judges have ruled that companies are not obligated to explicitly state on packaging that their products might be tied to child labor.