Lawsuit: Apple, Microsoft profit from child cobalt miners

WASHINGTON: A new lawsuit accuses several of the world’s largest technology firms of knowingly profiting from children laboring under brutal conditions in African cobalt mines.

The suit, filed this week in Washington by the nongovernmental organization International Rights Advocates, seeks damages from Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Tesla and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Cobalt is an essential element in the rechargeable lithium batteries that fuel many electronic devices. The rise of smartphones in the past 20 years has created a large demand for the metal, and the growing popularity of electric cars is expected to further increase demand.