Major companies in the global technology industry are failing to root out human rights abuses in their supply chains, with new analysis alleging the ICT sector is rife with instances of forced labour.

Findings from KnowTheChain’s ICT Benchmark 2025 found tech firms scoring an average 20/100 for tackling forced labour and human rights abuses in their supply chains, with only three companies scoring above 50/100 – namely Samsung (61/100), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (53/100) and Cisco (51/100).

Meanwhile, other tech giants are reportedly failing to meet expectations, with the likes of Panasonic (10), NVIDIA (11), Motorola (13), Canon (13), and Qualcomm (14) all scoring at the low end for human rights due diligence

Even household names, while scoring slightly better, were found to be lacking, with companies like Amazon (27), Intel (34), Apple (46) and HP (48) all allegedly failing to keep up with human rights risks in their supply chains.

KnowTheChain’s analysis, which provides a human rights-centred overview of the 45 largest global ICT firms aimed at investors, benchmarked against a range of factors, including recruitment, purchasing, governance, monitoring, and traceability.

Notably, more than a quarter (27%) of the benchmarked firms were accused of showing little or no effort to trace and disclose their supply chains, getting a zero score, while only 36% disclosed forced labour risks.

Almost all (93%) scored zero for supporting freedom of association, and just one in five gave examples of engaging with stakeholders to assess risks, leading to accusations of a misalignment between corporate human rights commitments and commercial decision making at the world’s biggest companies.

The study, conducted between June and December last year, claims to have identified particularly severe risks of forced labour within electronics supply chains, which reportedly tend to favour ‘just-in-time’ production, which can lead to excessive working hours due to short lead times as well as over-reliance on a flexible workforce.

Women were found to be among the most at risk, making up 60% of the temporary and sub-contracted workforce that electronics firms rely on, while migrant workers were revealed to be up to three-times more likely to be in conditions of forced labour.

The uneven distribution of profit margins across electronics supply chains compounds these factors, with semiconductor companies, which are often headquartered in more developed economies, gaining an average profit of between 17%-40% last year, while equipment manufacturers, often in less developed regions, only registered 4% profits over the same period.

Focusing on Taiwan, which produces 90% of the world’s advanced chips, KnowTheChain found instances of workers subjected to contract deception, restrictions on movement, illegally high recruitment fees, and even curfews that extend to days off.

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“The ICT sector continues to neglect its responsibility to uphold worker rights across supply chains and underperforms on key issues like support for freedom of association. It must step up its efforts to root out forced labour in supply chains as a matter of urgency,” said Áine Clarke, head of KnowTheChain.

“While many companies are adept at disclosing human rights policies, there is little evidence these commitments are being implemented in practice or having an effect on workers on the ground.

“Paper promises are not enough to meet growing legal and stakeholder expectations. Businesses must engage directly with rightsholders and move beyond a tick-box attitude to due diligence.”

With Europe set to introduce mandatory human rights due diligence laws, KnowTheChain is calling on business leaders and supply chain professionals to take immediate action by ensuring full risk-based human rights due diligence across supply chains, more engagement with unions and worker representative groups, and more ethical purchasing and recruitment practices.