Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe

Six Malian former child slaves sued Nestlé USA and Cargill under the Alien Tort Statute, alleging the companies aided and abetted child slavery on Ivory Coast cocoa farms. The plaintiffs claimed Nestlé and Cargill made operational decisions from the U.S. that perpetuated the forced labor system. The Supreme Court ruled on June 17, 2021, that the plaintiffs failed to establish sufficient domestic application of the ATS because nearly all relevant conduct occurred overseas. The Court held that general corporate activity within the U.S., such as decision-making, does not alone constitute a domestic application of the statute. The case was vacated and remanded.

The Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's judgment and remanded the case. The Court held in an 8-1 decision that plaintiffs failed to plead domestic application of the ATS because the alleged child slavery and most corporate conduct occurred in Ivory Coast, not the United States.

Whether the Alien Tort Statute applies extraterritorially to claims against U.S. corporations for human rights violations committed entirely on foreign soil, and whether domestic corporate decision-making constitutes sufficient U.S. conduct to establish ATS jurisdiction.

The ruling significantly narrowed the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, making it more difficult for human rights victims to sue multinational corporations in U.S. courts for abuses committed abroad. Human rights organizations criticized the decision as a setback for corporate accountability, while business groups welcomed the limitation on extraterritorial liability. The case highlighted ongoing concerns about child labor in global cocoa supply chains.