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Tony's Chocolonely

Tony's Chocolonely is an impact company that makes chocolate, with the mission of making 100% exploitation-free the norm in chocolate, not just our chocolate, but all chocolate world wide.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Sirpa Pietikäinen (Member of the European Parliament) and European Savings and Retail Banking Group and EcoVadis

2 Oct 2025 · EU Omnibus I

Meeting with Luis Planas Herrera (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall) and AxHA

12 Mar 2025 · EU Deforestation Regulation

Meeting with Anna Cavazzini (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Dec 2024 · Due diligence legislation

Meeting with Peter Van Kemseke (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen), Tomas Baert (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen) and

28 May 2024 · EUDR

Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament)

29 Apr 2024 · Tony's chocolonely: CSDDD + bedrijfsbezoek

Meeting with Anna Cavazzini (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

5 Mar 2024 · Forced Labour Legislation - EXPLOITATION IN COCOA

Meeting with Evelyn Regner (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur for opinion)

5 Mar 2024 · Photo Campaign to support CSDDD

Meeting with Raphaël Glucksmann (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

3 May 2023 · APA - Forced labour

Meeting with Ilan De Basso (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for opinion) and AxHA

25 Apr 2023 · Möte - Tvångsarbete

Meeting with Michiel Hoogeveen (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

24 Apr 2023 · Forced Labour

Meeting with Axel Voss (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

8 Mar 2023 · Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence

Meeting with Samira Rafaela (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

22 Feb 2023 · CSDD

Meeting with Maria-Manuel Leitão-Marques (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

25 Jan 2023 · Forced Labour ban

Meeting with Axel Voss (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

7 Nov 2022 · Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence

Meeting with Lara Wolters (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

13 Oct 2022 · Meeting position paper on Due Diligence

Response to Effectively banning products produced, extracted or harvested with forced labour

20 Jun 2022

Tony’s Chocolonely is an impact company that makes chocolate and fights for equality in the chocolate industry. We exist to make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate. Not just our own, but all chocolate worldwide. Because the system is broken and it’s up to chocolate companies to fix it. We’ve been fighting this fight for 15 years now, and there’s still a lot to be done to make 100% slave free the norm, together. In 2001 the world’s 8 biggest chocolate companies supported the Harkin–Engel protocol, which aimed to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and modern slavery from their supply chains. For more than 2 decades, the chocolate industry knows about the serious and structural problems in their supply chains. Since then, the protocol has run out and not a single target was met. This kind of stasis is common across sectors that outsource significant portions of their supply chains, exploiting illegal labour in the process. Today, according to the Global Slavery Index, in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire there are at least 30,000 victims of modern slavery in cocoa. As the number one chocolate seller in The Netherlands with rapid international growth, Tony’s Chocolonely proves that it is possible to make chocolate differently and enable cocoa farmers to earn a living income. We share our experience and tools through www.tonysopenchain.com to inspire other companies to follow our lead. Taking responsibility starts with knowing where your cocoa comes from, who produced it and under what circumstances. You need 100% traceability in order to truly engage with the problems in your chain and start solving them by paying a higher price, empowering farmers’ organizations, working on long term and equal business relations, investing in cocoa productivity and less cocoa dependency, etc. EU consumers should never enjoy a product while unknowingly contributing to child labour or modern slavery. Too many companies avoid or neglect their responsibilities and European consumers are left in the dark about whether they may contribute to human rights abuses. It is high time for businesses to take their consumers and their responsibility seriously. The European Commission’s legislative initiative aims to effectively ban the placing on the EU market of products made wholly or in part by forced labour. We see this initiative and the closely related Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDD) proposal as important advances as long as they do not undercut international principles such as the UN Guiding Principles and OECD Guidance. While banning cocoa from West Africa will not solve the problems at once, it is time that chocolate companies are forced to finally take responsibility of their full supply chain. We show how it can be done. By engaging with the problems and not turning away from them. An EU import ban on products linked to forced labour can be a powerful instrument to force cocoa and chocolate companies to finally take responsibility for their full supply chains. Tony’s Chocolonely intentionally focuses on high-risk producing countries, such as Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where abuses still take place. So, although blanket import bans are not the main solution well-designed import bans can be effective to guarantee the enforcement of due diligence to ensure forced labour risks is identified, prevented or remediated by companies in their value chains. Companies should no longer be allowed to import cocoa without knowing where and how it was produced. They must know their whole supply chain and implement proper human rights due diligence measures: find the problems in their supply chains and start solving them. Banning conventional, untraceable cocoa will end the chocolate industry dragging their feet and step up their game. Together we can make chocolate 100% slave free.
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