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In a landmark ruling the US Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a claim by the footwear maker Nike that a publicity campaign to counter allegations was protected by the right to free speech.
Nike's campaign advertises that the company shows Corporate Social Responsibility ("CSR") and that it e.g. does not use socalled sweatshops, a claim that numerous reports, not the least from Asia, have disputed.
The Bush administration had backed Nike, arguing that defeat would give too much power to private corporate critics.
In the 90s, Nike began facing a barrage of allegations that the company was exploiting workers, especially women and children.
The San Francisco-based activist Marc Kasky sued Nike in 1998, under a California consumer law aimed at eliminating unfair competition and false advertising.
According to the lawsuit Nike knew that workers were subjected to physical punishment and sexual abuse, endured dangerous working conditions and were unable to earn a sufficient living wage, despite often working 14 hours a day, but that Nike did little or nothing to use its influence to change matters and in fact wrongly advertised CSR.
BizAsia has earlier reported on such a case where hundreds of workers on a Thai factory manufacturing products for Nike and other brand names were left unpaid for many months of work.
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Nike, Levi's, Adidas, Reebok... profit from unpaid workers in Asia
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