Your Costco Shrimp Was Produced By Slaves Who Have Been Shackled And Whipped, Lawsuit Claims

Costco is facing a lawsuit that claims the major retailer club is selling imported shrimp produced by slaves in Thailand, reports SF Gate. The San Francisco consumer lawsuit demands that the retail company ceases all association with the imports and refunds consumers their shrimp money.

According to the suit, filed by California resident Monica Sud, Costco gets its shrimp supply from Thai company Charoen Pokhpand Foods.

The laborers said to provide the shrimp to CP Foods are said to work 20 hour days and seven-day weeks. Reports say that they are sometimes shackled, whipped and electrically shocked by traffickers who pocket the slaves’ wages.

While importing shrimp and other products produced by slavers isn’t illegal, the suit says that Costco is defrauding customers by telling them their food is produced within Costco’s values. Y’know, the ones that don’t support slavery. According to the suit, Costco publicly condemns human trafficking and slavery yet allegedly acts otherwise.

Thailand has been known to import seafood produced by human traffickers before and have caught heat for it multiple times. They’ve yet to really do anything to crack down on this.

According to SF Gate, Costco has yet to comment on the matter when they reached out.