Adidas Accused of Using Chinese Slave Labor Chrysler Won’t Raise Grand Cherokee Price

Adidas-Salomon was accused in a $1.2-billion lawsuit filed by Chinese political dissidents of using slave labor in China to make World Cup ’98 soccer balls. The lawsuit on behalf of current and former prisoners of Chinese work camps comes as the German company is trying to determine who was responsible for what it called possible unauthorized soccer ball production by political prisoners in China. The suit charges that prisoners were forced to produce Adidas soccer balls “14 to 18 hours a day under inhumane conditions.” The prisoners were beaten and subjected to other tortures, the suit says. The company’s U.S. subsidiary, Adidas America, and its president, Steven Wynne, are named as defendants, along with former Chinese Premier Li Peng, the Bank of China and the Communist Party of China. Adidas had no comment on the suit, but last month said it had found no evidence that its suppliers had authorized production of soccer balls at work camps. But it said it is looking into the dissidents’ charges to determine if there may have been unauthorized production.