Judge Dismisses Nike Lawsuit
Friday, 5 February 1999
S A N F R A N C I S C O (AP)
A JUDGE has thrown out a lawsuit that claimed Nike Inc. violated
California's false-advertising laws by whitewashing conditions in its Asian
factories to allay U.S. customers' concerns over sweatshops.
Superior Court Judge David Garcia dismissed the lawsuit Friday without
giving a reason.
The lawsuit accused Nike - the world's largest athletics shoe maker - of
falsely stating that it guarantees a "living wage" to all workers and of
painting a false picture of conditions for 450,000 workers in Asian
factories run by contractors.
Nike, based in Beaverton, Ore., denied making false statements and said
its descriptions of factory conditions were protected by freedom of
speech.
The ruling will be appealed, said Alan Caplan, one of the lawyers who filed
the lawsuit in April.
Caplan said he was at a loss to understand the ruling, because the right of
free speech does not bar lawsuits over fraudulent speech.
Vada Manager, spokesman for Nike, said the company's statements were
not the type of advertising regulated by the California law, as the lawsuit
alleged.
Nike Chairman Philip Knight said the ruling will allow the company to
redirect resources that were diverted by the lawsuit toward "its initiatives
for continuously updating factory working conditions around the world."
Nike said it had acted during the past year to set a minimum age of 18 for
workers in Asian footwear factories, increase wages 40 percent for
entry-level factory workers in Indonesia, and improved factory air quality
by substituting water-based adhesives in the assembly process.
The lawsuit said Nike's self-descriptions were refuted in studies by labor
and human rights groups, news media investigations and a January 1997
audit by the firm of Ernst & Young, commissioned by Nike.
The audit, leaked to reporters in November 1997, found that employees in
a large Vietnam shoe factory were exposed to cancer-causing toluene and
suffered a high incidence of respiratory problems. |
