Corporate Accountability Lab unleashes the creative potential of the law to protect people and the planet from corporate abuse.


What Price for the King of Oils?
Exploitation and Abuse in doTERRA’s Frankincense Supply Chain

November 1, 2024

In 2020, Horn of Africa Charity Organisation (HOACO) began an inquiry into wage theft in the frankincense industry in Somaliland and harm to rare frankincense forests, and engaged Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) in 2021. The trail led to a U.S.-based essential oil company and allegations indicative of a far-reaching and diverse criminal enterprise, including theft, egregious labor violations, bribery, sex trafficking, and rape or assault of hundreds of women and girls.

On November 1, 2024, US Customs and Border Protection issued a Withhold Release Order against frankincense and frankincense-based products imported into the United States from Somalia by doTERRA’s supplier, Asli Maydi Exports & Imports Company. This WRO comes after CBP found five indicators of forced labor within this supply chain: deception, withholding of wages, abusive working conditions, threats and intimidation, and physical violence.

 

CAL AND SOUTHERN SHRIMP ALLIANCE FILE PETITION WITH FTC, URGING INVESTIGATION INTO DECEPTIVE BAP CERTIFICATION SCHEME

November 1, 2024

CAL and Southern Shrimp Alliance file a petition with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting action against false or deceptive advertising- or marketing-related activities by the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification scheme, operated by the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA), as well as the many brands and retailers that use and rely on the BAP seal to sell their farmed shrimp products. The petition demonstrates that BAP certification represents Indian shrimp products as safe, responsible, and ethically farmed seafood despite CAL’s findings on the use of exploitative labor practices–including forced labor–as well as the widespread presence of banned antibiotics and environmentally damaging practices.

 

CAL, Civic Response and University of Ghana School of Law File Historic Grievance with the Ghana Cocoa Board on Behalf of 30 Cocoa Farmers

October 31, 2024

Despite COCOBOD’s control over and regulation of the Ghanaian cocoa sector, for over a decade the cocoa industry has suffered deforestation; efforts to combat climate change have been hampered by the industry’s failure to embrace a transition to agroforestry; cocoa farmers have continued to use illegal pesticides and overuse legal pesticides; and hazardous child labour remains all too common in the sector. These circumstances are detrimental to the general welfare of cocoa farmers and their families. This grievance concerns COCOBOD’s failure to adequately monitor and address these issues. 

Read the full press release here.


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our work

Research

We study the laws that govern corporate behavior and identify how and why such laws fail to hold corporations accountable for the human rights violations and environmental harms occurring across  their supply chains.

Legal Design

We design strategic interventions into global supply chains to better protect human rights and the environment through novel litigation strategy and new forms of worker empowerment.

Collaboration 

We collaborate with lawyers, law school clinics, other corporate accountability NGOs, and workers to workshop our designs, coordinate strategy, and implement our strategic interventions.