June 9, 2025 — U.S. canned tuna producer Bumble Bee Foods has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly benefited from its suppliers’ use of forced labor by Indonesian workers.
Earlier this year, four Indonesian men filed a complaint in federal court in San Diego, California, against Bumble Bee, alleging the company was aware of and profited from labor abuses and forced labor that they and other migrant sea workers endured aboard fishing vessels supplying the iconic U.S. tuna brand.
On June 2, the company submitted a motion to the court to dismiss the case on legal grounds in an effort to end it before it reaches trial. In the motion, the company argued the plaintiffs lack standing for their claims, that they failed to state a proper claim under the law in question, and that the court lacks jurisdiction over certain aspects of the case.
“Plaintiffs allege horrible mistreatment at the hands of vessel captains and crew on distant-water fishing vessels owned by two Chinese companies, operating in international waters, that supplied albacore tuna to Bumble Bee Foods, LLC (Bumble Bee),” the company stated in the motion. “Bumble Bee unequivocally condemns forced labor and takes allegations of forced labor in its supply chain seriously. Indeed, when Bumble Bee learned of the allegations in the Complaint, it promptly instructed its suppliers to cease purchasing from the vessels at issue. Plaintiffs nonetheless seek to hold Bumble Bee—a U.S. company—liable under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and state negligence law for allegations of forced labor committed abroad by third parties somewhere in the supply chain. That limitless theory of liability would allow any manufacturer or retailer to be sued based on conduct by independent foreign actors anywhere in a global supply chain. This and other defects in the Complaint necessitate its dismissal.”
Bumble Bee declined Mongabay’s request for comments due to the pending litigation.
The Indonesians launched their historic lawsuit, believed to be the first of its kind against the seafood industry in the U.S., on March 12 under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The law, first passed by the U.S. Congress in 2000, has been expanded over the years to strengthen efforts against human trafficking and forced labor. In 2008, it was updated to allow survivors to sue individuals or corporations that knowingly benefited from forced labor or related abuses.
“Americans need to know the cruelty and exploitation that is behind the tuna they buy and eat,” Angga, one of the four plaintiffs, told Mongabay in an email sent by their lawyers.
Angga alleged in the complaint that he was promised a job in 2020 on the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 268, a Chinese fishing vessel. But after arriving at the fishing grounds, he was moved to another vessel, the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 878, where he worked until returning home. He said he endured harsh conditions and abuse on board, including routine beatings and being stabbed with a needle, while he and other fishers were so underfed they ate bait fish. The ship’s captain denied their repeated requests to go home until a collective work stoppage forced the officers to allow them to leave, according to Angga.
“When I got home, I learned that I hadn’t been paid for the months I worked on the vessel,” he said in the email.