Costco Wholesale was sued for selling farmed shrimp from Thailand, where slave labor and human trafficking in the fishing industry are widespread, and allegedly misleading U.S. consumers about it.
A California woman, Monica Sud, filed what may be the first lawsuit for such liability tied to the Thai fishing industry Wednesday in San Francisco federal court. She cited state laws that bar companies from making false claims about illegal conduct in their supply chain.
Costco’s purchases of Thailand’s farmed prawns, which are fed a diet of cheap fish caught at sea by unpaid, forced labor, helps prop up an industry whose practices are ignored by local authorities, the lawsuit claims.
“California consumers are unknowingly supporting slave labor,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Niall McCarthy, of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP, said in a statement.
Costco spokesman Bob Nelson didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit.
As a purchaser of shrimp from Costco, Sud seeks class action status on behalf of similar California consumers
The lawsuit also names as a defendant the U.S. distributor of the prawns, Maryland-based CP Food Products Inc., and its
Thailand-based parent company, Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Ltd.
Costco’s relationship with CP Foods contradicts its public statements about slavery in the company’s supply chain, according to the complaint.
“Costco publicly represents that it does not tolerate human trafficking and slavery in its supply chain, yet it continues to purchase the tainted farmed prawns from defendant CP Foods,” according to the complaint.
