Starbucks’ response and what to watch
Starbucks has long touted its C.A.F.E. Practices verification program and partnerships with third-party organizations as the backbone of its responsible sourcing strategy. The company’s public materials describe C.A.F.E. as a system that evaluates farms on economic, social, and environmental criteria and enforces zero-tolerance indicators for forced or child labor. After the lawsuit was filed, Starbucks reiterated its commitment to those standards and third-party checks. Starbucks About Starbucks AP News
From here, the case moves into discovery. Expect NCL to probe how Starbucks communicates ethics claims across packaging, websites, apps, rewards campaigns, and in-store messaging—and how those claims map onto actual supplier oversight and enforcement. Starbucks will likely lean on audits, corrective-action plans, and re-verification evidence to argue that “100% ethically sourced” reflects robust, good-faith controls, not a guarantee of perfection.
