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 The US court dismissed the lawsuit against Apple, Tesla, Google

A federal appeals court in the United States has rejected a lawsuit that accused major technology companies of being involved in using children to mine cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The volume is named after Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, the technology company Dell and the Alphabet company that owns Google.

On Tuesday, the court decided that the companies' purchase of the mine does not mean that they are involved in forced child labor.

Justice Neomi Rao said the plaintiffs had failed to show that the alleged companies had the power to end forced child labor in the mines.

In 2019, a human rights organization that protects child workers and those who have been injured working in the cobalt mines in Congo and the families of the children who died in the mine started filing the lawsuit.

However, a lower court rejected the case in 2021, which is why they appealed.

Congo produces 60 percent of the world's cobalt, a mineral that is very important in the production of lighting equipment.

And at least 25,000 children work in cobalt mines in poor conditions, according to the US Department of Labor.