Consumer group files lawsuit against Starbucks
New York: A consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit against Starbucks on Wednesday, saying the company’s claims that its coffee is ethically sourced are false and misleading.
The National Consumers League cited media reports of abuses on farms that supply coffee and tea to Starbucks. The group said these cases cast doubt on Starbucks’ packaging, adding that the company is “committed to 100% ethical coffee sourcing.” Starbucks said Wednesday that it is aware of the lawsuit and that it will “aggressively defend against the alleged claims.” The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
One of the incidents cited in the lawsuit was a 2022 case in which police rescued 17 workers — including three teenagers — from a Brazilian coffee farm where they were forced to work outside without protective equipment and lift 130-pound sacks of coffee. Was forced to. The case was covered by Reporter Brazil, a group of journalists that investigate workers’ rights and environmental issues.
Starbucks said Wednesday it had no knowledge of that case.
“We take allegations like this extremely seriously and are actively engaging with farms to ensure they adhere to our standards,” the company said.
The lawsuit also cites a 2023 BBC report that exposed widespread sexual exploitation and gruesome working conditions at the James Finlay tea plantation in Kenya. James Finlay was a supplier to Starbucks at the time, but Starbucks said Wednesday it no longer buys tea from that plantation.
Starbucks buys about 3 percent of the world’s coffee. The company says it works with 400,000 farmers in more than 30 countries.
Starbucks developed ethical sourcing guidelines in 2004 and uses third parties to verify the conditions of its suppliers. The company says it has zero tolerance for child labor and seeks to provide farmers with a safe, fair and humane working environment.
But the National Consumers League said Starbucks is misleading consumers by failing to disclose that its certification program does not guarantee ethical sourcing.
The group is asking the court to stop Starbucks from engaging in misleading advertising and conduct a corrective advertising campaign. “Starbucks’ failure to adopt meaningful reforms to its coffee and tea sourcing practices in the face of these criticisms and the documented labor abuses at its source farms is completely inconsistent with a reasonable consumer’s understanding of what it means to commit to 100 percent ethical Means ‘sourcing,'” the group said in its court filing.
