Hershey’s class action alleging company uses child labour, slavery in supply chain certified

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Hershey’s child labour class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Hershey Canada Inc. and the Hershey Company failed to get a class action lawsuit filed dismissed.
• Why: Plaintiff Scott Leaf claims the Hershey companies uses child slave labour in the supply chain for their chocolate products.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Hershey Canada and the Hershey Company were unable to convince a justice to dismiss a class action lawsuit claiming they use child slave labour in their supply chain. 

The justice overseeing the complaint made by plaintiff Scott Leaf in the British Columbia Supreme Court certified the class action lawsuit late last month. 

Leaf claims the Hershey companies misrepresented through their advertising, marketing and packaging that they “did not rely on and benefit from child slavery and trafficked children in their supply chains.” 

Leaf filed the class action lawsuit against the companies in March 2020, at which time he claimed that their alleged use of child labour and slavery was “abhorrent.” 

The Hershey companies, in their attempt to get the class action lawsuit thrown out, argued that Leaf had not established that he had personally received or relied on the alleged misrepresentations and that the complaint did not expressly state that they do business in B.C. 

Hershey’s class action says companies deny using child labour

The companies have maintained that they do not use child labour in their supply chains and oppose the use of it, according to the Hershey’s class action. 

Justice Jasmin Ahmad, meanwhile, ruled against the Hershey companies, allowing Leaf’s complaint to move ahead. 

“Mr. Leaf alleges that contrary to those representations, ‘child labour and slavery’ are present in the defendants’ supply chain. He asserts claims against the defendants in misrepresentation at common law and under the Competition Act,” Ahmad wrote in her decision. 

A separate consumer filed a similar class action lawsuit against Hershey Canada in 2020 also claiming the company uses child labour while arguing that they would not have purchased Hershey’s chocolate products had they known. 

Have you purchased Hershey’s chocolate products? What do you think of the slave labour allegations? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by A. Tanel and N. Gondek. 

The Hershey’s child labour class action lawsuit is Leaf v. Hershey Canada Inc., et al., Case No. S202785, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

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