Starbucks sued for allegedly misleading claims on ethical sourcing
Newsy
The lawsuit questions Starbucks' claim of being "committed to 100% ethical coffee sourcing."
Starbucks faces a lawsuit for allegedly falsely advertising "ethically sourced” tea and coffee when it was allegedly obtained from farms accused of human rights violations in other countries.
The National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy group, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, accusing the coffee giant of sourcing “coffee beans and tea leaves from cooperatives and farms that have committed documented, severe human rights and labor abuses, including the use of child labor and forced labor as well as rampant and egregious sexual harassment and assault."
The group raised concerns about Starbucks' packaging, questioning the validity of the company's claim to be "committed to 100% ethical coffee sourcing."
The lawsuit referenced the following incidents from news reports in Kenya, Brazil, and Guatemala spanning from 2020 to 2023:
In 2020, the UK's Dispatches TV exposed widespread child labor in Guatemala on farms supplying beans to Starbucks, where children under 13 were found working.
