A young worker on a plantation in Guezon on the Ivory Coast shows the “beans” of the cocoa fruit. (archive image)Image: www.imago-images.de
Lindt & Sprüngli has been sued in the USA by an activist law firm. The law firm International Rights Advocates accuses the chocolate manufacturer of misrepresenting its efforts to combat child labor in the cocoa-sourcing countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast.
July 24, 2026, 12:10 p.mJuly 24, 2026, 12:10 p.m
The Bloomberg news agency first reported on it on Thursday evening. Although Lindt & Sprüngli has announced that it wants to end child labor in its supply chain, it continues to profit from it, according to Bloomberg, according to the lawsuit filed in a court in the District of Columbia. The law firm accused the company of doing little to prevent child labor.
The chocolate manufacturer denies the allegations. “We have supplier guidelines and systematically investigate all suspected cases of child labor in our supply chain,” a spokesman told the AWP news agency on Friday.
The issue of child labor is taken “very seriously”. “These baseless allegations are similar to lawsuits and claims that the same organization has previously made against many other chocolate manufacturers.”
Last year, Lindt & Sprüngli set the goal of sourcing cocoa exclusively from suppliers who have a child labor monitoring system from 2026 onwards. (sda/awp)