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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30 FARMERS SUBMIT GRIEVANCE TO THE GHANA COCOA BOARD USING AGENCY’s GRIEVANCE AND REDRESS MECHANISM
30 FARMERS SUBMIT GRIEVANCE TO THE GHANA COCOA BOARD USING AGENCY’s GRIEVANCE AND REDRESS MECHANISM

Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, home to over 800,000 smallholder farmers who make up about 60 percent of Ghana’s agricultural workforce. Despite the massive profits that global chocolate companies earn, poverty is pervasive in Ghana’s cocoa-growing communities. According to the 2022 Cocoa Barometer, an overwhelming majority of farmers and their families live in poverty: the average cocoa farmer earns between $0.40 and $0.45 USD per day, whereas the living wage in Ghana is estimated as of 2022 to be $13.5 USD per day. Meanwhile, chocolate companies have been making record profits despite the pandemic and global inflation. 

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Sweet Deals, Sour Outcomes: How Speculation and Commoditization Affect Cocoa Farmers
Sweet Deals, Sour Outcomes: How Speculation and Commoditization Affect Cocoa Farmers

The problem with the cocoa commodity price spike is not the increased price. Cocoa should be priced higher! But more of that value needs to go to the farmers who grow it. Outside of the commoditized market that supplies bulk quantities of cocoa to corporations such as Nestlé and Mondelez, alternative supply chain models already exist. Some smaller “premium” chocolate companies contract directly with farmers, paying up to $12,000 per metric ton of cocoa. They pay the premium price to ensure a supply of beans that are harvested by ethical, well-compensated laborers on an environmentally sustainable farm.

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When the Law Works: In re Chiquita, State Torts, and a New Frontier
When the Law Works: In re Chiquita, State Torts, and a New Frontier

Beginning with the history of the case, this post covers the facts and implications of the recent unanimous verdict reached by a federal jury in In re Chiquita. The first part of the post details Chiquita’s history in Colombia, the human rights abuses associated with its relationship with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and the litigation that followed. The second part of the post considers the immediate future of this case as well as its systemic implications with a particular focus on this verdict’s implications for the use of state tort law in human rights litigation.

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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.