"Congress Amends the TVPRA to Correct Ninth Circuit’s Erroneous Ruling in Ratha", 1 Aug 2023

Last year, in Ratha v. Phatthana Seafood, the Ninth Circuit held that civil liability under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) does not extend to those who attempt to benefit from forced labor. After the court denied en banc review, the Human Trafficking Legal Center and other human and workers’ rights organizations asked Congress to amend the statute to clarify its intent...

Cambodian villagers filed a lawsuit under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) alleging that they were trafficked into Thailand to work in forced labor at Phatthana Seafood’s shrimp processing plant. Phatthana Seafood allegedly used debt bondage, confiscation of identity documents, threats of arrest, horrific living conditions, as well as physical and verbal abuse to force the villagers to package shrimp for sale. The majority owner of the Phatthana Seafood factory, along with other Thai seafood producers, founded another company, Rubicon, to expand seafood sales into the United States...

The complaint alleged that Rubicon was an active—and crucial—participant in this commercial venture to sell seafood manufactured in Thailand in the United States. And, in 2011, Rubicon brought more than two tons of tainted shrimp into the United States for delivery to Walmart. But Walmart turned the shrimp away because it was made with forced labor...

[T]he district court dismissed the case against Rubicon...

The Ninth Circuit found Rubicon could not be liable for one reason—because Walmart had turned the shrimp away. The Court claimed that Rubicon had only attempted to benefit from the venture...

After the Ninth Circuit declined to take the case en banc, a group of advocacy organizations discussed the misinterpretation with members of Congress, their staffs, and executive branch officials—alerting them to the potential impact of the decision...

We proposed clarifying amendments to Congress based on the text of the Ninth Circuit decision...

Congress shared our concerns and agreed with the proposed clarifying amendment to make clear that, since 2008, the TVPRA has included attempt and conspiracy civil liability and that the panel decision was wrongly decided. Specifically, Congress amended Section 1595 by inserting “or attempts or conspires to benefit,” after “whoever knowingly benefits”—a direct response to the Ninth Circuit’s misinterpretation of the language in this parenthetical...

The Clarifying and Technical Amendment passed without a single vote in opposition—less than nine months after the Ninth Circuit’s decision...

It is now up to the Ninth Circuit to abide by Congress’s clear intent and allow the plaintiffs’ case against Rubicon to proceed to a jury.