Several campaign groups have called for a boycott of Ahava due to its involvement in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. 

In 2009 CODEPINK, the US women's anti-war movement, launched the 'Stolen Beauty' campaign targeting Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories. The campaign saw coordinated actions in countries such as Palestine, the US, UK, Netherlands, South Africa, and France.

In 2016 the campaign appeared to have some success - Ahava announced it would be opening a new manufacturing plant outside of the West Bank and within Israel’s pre-1967 borders, which many hoped signalled the company would fully withdraw from settlements.

However, it appears that Ahava did not close down the existing plant and as such continues to operate illegally on Palestinian land. 

The BDS movement continues to call for a boycott of Ahava, stating “Ahava cosmetics has its production site, visitor center and main store in an illegal Israeli settlement.”

Air France is the only major airline that continues to ship monkeys to laboratories for experimentation. Primates transported by Air France are frequently taken from the wild and were transported on journeys that could last for more than 30 hours.

According to PETA, "Primates in laboratories were routinely mutilated, poisoned, deprived of food and water, forcibly immobilized in restraint devices, infected with painful and deadly diseases, and psychologically tormented...Primates suffer from the long and gruelling transport in the cargo holds of planes and in the backs of trucks."

In March 2020, the campaign group reissued the boycott call:

"Amid calls for increased experimentation on monkeys during the COVID-19 outbreak, PETA is once again telling Air France to stop flying them to laboratories for pointless and deadly studies.

"Transporting stressed and potentially immunocompromised monkeys, who are poor models of disease in humans, is dangerous and poses a serious public health risk. Experiments on them have failed to lead to cures and treatments for human diseases, and cutting-edge scientists are already conducting human vaccine trials for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus."

We have called a boycott of Amazon over its outrageous tax avoidance.

In 2020, we estimated that the UK lost £52 million to Amazon's tax avoidance in 2017. Nothing has changed significantly since. In 2019, Amazon’s key UK business paid just 3% more in tax compared to 2018, despite its pre-tax profits growing by more than 35%.

In April 2020, the government implemented a 2% “digital services tax” on UK sales of very large companies providing online marketplaces, as well as search engines and social media services. Amazon immediately announced that it would pass it on to the sellers on its site.

Read more about our Amazon boycott here.

The Hunt Saboteurs Association is calling for a boycott of AXA due to the company's involvement with the hunting community.

The campaign group stated "As first revealed by Hunting Leaks, AXA provides legal fee insurance to The Hunting Office. This Office is responsible for the administration of hunting across the UK. The policy covers Hunting Act offences, and violence towards hunt saboteurs. When members of hunts are arrested, interviewed by the police or have to attend court, their legal costs are covered by AXA."

It continued "AXA’s insurance provision is critical in allowing illegal hunting to continue in the UK. Without the insurance policy hunts could not afford to risk being caught hunting wild animals and abusing those who try and stop them."

The ‘Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid’ coalition has called for a boycott of the insurance company over its links to Israeli banks.

The campaign group contracted a report by Profundo in March 2021 to investigate the links between AXA and Israeli banks, and found AXA was invested in four of the banks. 

The BDS Movement says 10,000 people and over 230 organisations have signed the pledge to boycott AXA.

People & Planet are calling on institutions to divest from and consumers to boycott Barclays in the face of its fossil fuel funding. Barclays is the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe, providing over $118billion for fossil fuel projects between 2016-2019. Funded projects include the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Trans Mountain pipeline and the Cerrejón coal mine, all known for their serious violations of Indigenous rights. The campaign says:

it's time for them to halt their support for the fossil fuel industry before they drive us over the climate cliff.

In particular, student-led campaigns have called on universities to divest from the company, seeing widespread success. Sheffield, Bristol and Surrey University Students Unions, NUS and Young Labour are all amongst those to have voted in favour of boycotting Barclays.

Human rights groups and political leaders are calling for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing over the Chinese Government’s atrocities against Uyghur citizens in the Xinjiang region. The Chinese government is estimated to have held between 1 to 1.8 million people in detention and forced labour camps in the region – the largest internment of an ethnic and religious minority since World War II.

In September, more than 160 human rights groups wrote to the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), urging them to reverse their decision to hold the 2022 Games in China, due to the state’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Inner Mongolia. In February, 180 organisations reiterated the call.

In its letter to the IOC, the coalition of 180 human rights groups highlighted the failure of the 2008 Beijing Games to encourage change in the county, stating:

The IOC refused to listen in 2008, defending its decision with claims that they would prove to be a catalyst for improved human rights. As human rights experts predicted, this decision proved to be hugely misplaced; not only did China’s human rights record not improve but violations increased substantially without rebuke.

“Now, in 2021, we find ourselves back in the same position with the IOC who are refusing to act despite the clear evidence of genocide and widespread and worsening human rights failures.

Other organisations are calling for a diplomatic boycott, which would allow players to compete, but would see governments refusing to send high-level officials to the games. Proponents say it could provide an opportunity to engage with the athletes, sponsors and broadcasters of the games and raise awareness of the issues.

The UK Boycott Turkey campaign is focused on international solidarity and action against the regime in Turkey, working with Kurdish and Turkish civil society groups.

The campaign highlights institutions and corporations that are complicit in the oppressive policies of the Turkish state. The current regime in Turkey is quick to imprison political opponents who criticise the state or its assaults on Kurds. Academics, journalists and elected politicians are routinely jailed for using their right to free speech.

UK Boycott Turkey are asking consumers to boycott the brands that are intricately tied up with the regime, primarily Beko and Grundig. Both Beko and Grundig are owned by Arçelik AS, which is 57% owned by Koç Holding AS.  

The Koç group is a major Turkish conglomerate which plays a central role in the Turkish economy. It has a long history of links to the Turkish state, in particular through the Koç group company Otokar, and thus military manufacturing links. 

UK Boycott Turkey are also asking consumers to avoid supporting the Turkish government by avoiding taking holidays to Turkey. Turkish holding companies own travel companies and hotels also own arms companies. 

Read more about the Turkey boycott call here.

Vermonters for Justice in Palestine (VTPJ) has called for a boycott of Ben & Jerry's since 2013, calling on it to end sales in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and to end all sales across Israel. The boycott saw partial success in July 2021, when Ben & Jerry's announced that it would end its current franchise relationship in Israel, and put an end to sales in settlements as it considered them "inconsistent" with the brand's values. Parent company Unilever however stated that Ben & Jerry's would "stay in Israel through a different arrangement".

Ian Stokes of VTPJ states:

“The recent announcement by Ben & Jerry’s ending the sale of its ice cream in illegal settlements is very welcome. However, it does not adequately address all of the demands of the boycott call, such as ending sales across Israel. We therefore continue to call for a consumer boycott.”

The official Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement also calls on Ben & Jerry's to end sales across Israel.

What's more, according to the VTJP website: "They (Ben & Jerry’s) are still at it! (Selling their ice cream in illegal settlements). Despite assurance in July 19th 2021 that they would stop. [...] But apparently nothing has changed." The website showed photos of Ben & Jerry's products on sale in a shop in an Israeli settlement dated October 2021, suggesting ice cream continued to be sold in settlements.

Civil society has long highlighted the role of Brazilian agribusiness, particularly soya plantations and meat farms, in the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon and serious violations of Indigenous rights. In recent years, the industry has also be accused of legitimising and exploiting Bolsonaro's corrupt and genocidal governance.

Survival is demanding supermarkets stop buying from Brazillian agribusiness. It says:

Agribusiness giants in Brazil are stealing indigenous peoples’ land, poisoning them with pesticides, forcing them to live in makeshift camps with soaring rates of malnutrition, disease and suicide, burning down Brazil’s most biodiverse forests, and threatening to wipe out whole uncontacted tribes. The purchase of produce from these suppliers is fuelling Brazil’s genocide.

Brazil’s National Indigenous Mobilization (MNI) and Indigenous People Articulation have also called for international solidarity in condemning those companies involved and are being backed by Extinction Rebellion in the UK. Many of the major UK supermarkets, particularly Tesco, as well as Burger King, McDonald's and KFC have been criticised for their role.

Survival asks consumers to write to supermarkets demanding change here. Greenpeace asks consumers to sign a petition to Tesco here.

According to an Electronic Intifada article, “Without selling a single bomb, gun or F16 fighter”, Caterpillar has been supplying the Israeli military with what one Israeli military commander called “key weapon”. D-9 bulldozers have been used to destroy “agricultural farms, greenhouses, ancient olive groves [....] numerous Palestinian homes and sometimes human lives”, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

The boycott campaign has seen several major successes, including the Church of England's decision to divest its £2.2 million holding in Caterpillar.

CJPME is one of the groups calling for a boycott of Caterpillar. [] 

The #NotInMyFridge campaign by Friends of Al Aqsa calls for a boycott of Coca-Cola because it profits from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It states, “Coca-Cola's violates international law by operating in Atarot illegal Israeli settlement.”

It continues, "Central Bottling Company (CBC) is an Israeli manufacturer and distributor of soft drinks, dairy products and alcoholic beverages. Coca-Cola profits from the occupation by working with CBC which sells its drinks in Israel. CBC has a Coca-Cola factory in Atarot illegal Israeli settlement. Israeli settlements are built on land stolen from Palestinians and are illegal under international law. By having it’s Israeli franchise in illegal settlements, Coca-Cola ignores international law and profits from the illegal occupation."

FOA is calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola until it cuts ties with CBC.

The campaign to Stop Killer Coke has targeted the company since the early 2000s. During this period there were claims that Coca-Cola had been involved in the murders of union leaders and members at bottling plants at its factories in South America, and many other instances of violence, intimidation and workers' rights abuses. 

Killer Coke has never called for a boycott of Coca-Cola but it has called for schools, colleges, universities and other institutions to remove all Coke machines and to ban the sale of Coke beverages on their premises and had many successes - due to its range of divestment successes and the prominence of the campaign we've included it on the Boycotts List.

The Killer Coke campaign continues to publish criticisms of the company on its website.

PETA are calling on Channel 4 to stop airing Crufts. The BBC dropped the show after relevations about ill, inbred animals, and the RSPCA refuses to attend it. The culture of breeding has serious health implications for the dogs involved on the show. PETA claims:

With its obsession with "purity of breed", Crufts popularises grossly exaggerated features in animals and awards prizes to dogs whose physical abnormalities make it impossible for them to lead a happy life – pugs with pushed-in faces who can barely breathe, Cavalier King Charles spaniels whose brains are too big for their skulls and bulldogs who can't even mate without assistance, to name just a few examples.

The campaign says that this culture of breeding also have wider implication for canine welfare, pointing out that breeders may receive thousand of pounds for pedigree puppies with a low quality of life, while many healthy dogs remain in animal shelters. 

It is asking its supporters to contact Channel 4 and ask it to stop airing the show.

Naturewatch Foundation launched a boycott call against Ecover in April 2018, over the brand's links to companies that test products on animals. In December 2017, Ecover and its sister company Method were purchased by SC Johnson, a US company that openly admits to testing on animals and owns other non Naturewatch-endorsed household cleaning brands such as Duck, Shout, Glade, Pledge and Windex.

Caroline Ruane, Naturewatch Foundation CEO, said:

It's hugely disappointing to compassionate shoppers when favourite brands compromise their cruelty free credentials by selling out to multinationals that continue to benefit from animal testing.

The boycott has since seen some success with Ecover and Method committing to use their influence to convince SC Johnson to go cruelty-free. However, SC Johnson is yet to do so, and Naturewatch Foundation is asking compassionate consumers to boycott all SC Johnson brands, including Ecover and Method, until the entire company is cruelty-free. Read more about the boycott.

The Stop Hate for Profit coalition calls for Facebook to stop the spread of racism, hate, violence and misinformation about voting across its platforms. Demands include taking down groups focused on white supremacy, militia, antisemitism, Islamophobia and violent conspiracies; removing misinformation related to voting that has been debunked by credible fact checkers; and prohibiting calls to violence by politicians in any format. The organisation says:

“Facebook’s policies and enforcement on hate speech, incitement to violence, and misinformation are astonishingly weak, and disproportionately harm BIPOC and LGBTQ+ users.”

In July 2020, the Stop Hate for Profit coalition - which includes thousands of businesses as well as civil society groups and nonprofits such as NAACP, Color of Change and Sleeping Giants - called on companies to pause advertisements on the site. Over 1100 companies joined the boycott, including Lego and Coca-Cola. In response, Facebook has taken limited action, including beginning to address some of the most hateful movements using its site, publishing its civil rights audit and establishing a team to study algorithmic racial bias. However, the campaign says that the company "has failed to address our core demands meaningfully."

While the campaign does not appear to be calling for an ongoing boycott of Facebook, it has used boycott as a strategy in the past (and may well do so in the future).

Fox News faces a boycott call over its hate speech and fake news. TrueUSA is calling on all advertisers to boycott the news corporation, and consumers to boycott brands that continue advertising with it. It says:

We’re demanding integrity from the brands to which we give our money. Fox News has proven itself again and again, from birtherism to the vile Seth Rich smear to the demonizing of Black Lives Matter, to be the most powerful outlet for hate, fear, and propaganda in America.

TrueUSA asks consumers to pick four brands still advertising with the corporation, and send them a message letting them know, "If they sponsor Fox, we'll shop elsewhere." According to the campaign, advertisers include everyone from Subaru and Verizon, to Amazon and Booking.com. Find the full list here.

The International Campaign for the Rohingya is calling for a consumer boycott of jewellery company Harry Winston and its owner, Swatch. The campaign states “Myanmar produces more than 90% of the world’s rubies and jade [...] Because it dominates Burma's gemstone industry, the Myanmar military profits when high-end jewellery retailers – like Harry Winston (owned by Swatch) – buy Burmese gems for their collections.”

The campaign group is asking people in London to make an appointment at one of Harry Winston’s swanky stores, to request to see jewellery containing rubies, then explain to the manager that you’ll never buy there as long as it buys gems that fund the Myanmar military. 

For the fainter hearted, there’s also a petition, currently on over 23,000 signatures.

PETA are calling for a boycott of fashion company Hermès which sells luxury bags and belts using skin from reptiles. Alligators and crocodiles are factory farmed and brutally slaughtered for 'luxury' fashion. 

PETA investigated the conditions in which crocodiles and alligators were kept on leather farms, in Texas and Zimbabwe. It found that "Alligators are packed in dank pools and crocodiles are crowded in barren concrete pits for months or even years before finally being slaughtered for their skins." The animals are killed at a young age, often when they are just one, and using inhumane methods. They are often shot or cut into while still conscious and able to feel pain. 

"There is no justification for supporting such blatant cruelty." The campaign asks its supporters to contact Hermès demanding that it stop buying and selling crocodile and alligator skin accessories, and saying that it will be boycotting the company until them.

The BDS Movement has called for a boycott of both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and HP Inc. HPE and HP Inc. have been two separate businesses since 2015, but BDS says "Both HP-branded corporations remain complicit in Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism."

According to BDS, HPE "provides Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority with the exclusive Itanium servers for its Aviv System. This system enables the government to control and enforce its system of racial segregation and apartheid against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and is directly involved in Israel’s settler colonialism through its “Yesha database”, which compiles information on Israeli citizens in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank." It also maintains the Israeli police's data centre.

HP previously developed the BASEL system, a biometric identification system for use at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, which controls Palestinian movement through a system of ID cards and biometric information. It also worked with the Israeli military, maintaining its IT infrastructure, while it imposed a naval blockade of the Gaza strip. BDS states:

For these and other past ties of complicity with Israel’s occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism, HP-branded companies must provide reparations to the Palestinian victims of these crimes.

Read more about the Israeli apartheid boycott in our feature article.

PETA is calling for a boycott of House of Fraser, after the chain's new owner, Sports Direct International, reversed the company's no-fur policy, despite the poor treatment of animals within the fur industry. The company was said to be selling fur from rabbits and raccoons.

Animals within the fur industry sometimes face lifelong confinement in cramped cages, and are often killed using inhumane methods. The campaign stated: "It's a colossal step backwards, as 95% of Brits refuse to wear real fur"

PETA is asking for consumers to write the the company and declare their intention to boycott the chain until the no-fur policy is reinstated. Write to the company here.

The BDS Movement has called for a boycott of both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and HP Inc. HPE and HP Inc. have been two separate businesses since 2015, but BDS says "Both HP-branded corporations remain complicit in Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism."

HP Inc is contracted as the exclusive provider of personal computers to the Israeli military, which BDS says it uses "within the context of ongoing war crimes and systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. HP has been supplying the Israeli military since 2009, with its most recent contract signed in 2014, extendable through 2019."

HP previously developed the BASEL system, a biometric identification system for use at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, which controls Palestinian movement through a system of ID cards and biometric information. It also worked with the Israeli military, maintaining its IT infrastructure, while it imposed a naval blockade of the Gaza strip. BDS states:

For these and other past ties of complicity with Israel’s occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism, HP-branded companies must provide reparations to the Palestinian victims of these crimes.

More than 1.7 million people have signed a petition calling on HP to end its role in Israeli apartheid, and several US churches have voted to divest. Read more about the Israeli apartheid boycott here.

The BDS movement is led by Palestinian civil society, and based on the 2005 Call for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights”, which was endorsed by more than 170 Palestinian civil society networks and groups. It follows  "decades of refusal to abide by UN resolutions, International Humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention." Businesses operating in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine have also been targeted.

BDS describes itself as "a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity."

Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

The campaign has successfully persuaded governments, churches and banks to divest from companies involved in Israeli occupation, or which are operating in Israeli settlements in Palestine. It has also seen several targeted companies change their practices and break their ties with the Israeli government or relocate from settlements there. Read more about BDS.

American Muslims for Palestine have a long-running boycott call against Israeli date exporters, in response to the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel.

The campaign says that dates are regularly grown in illegal Israeli settlements, and that dates labelled as grown in “Jordan Valley”, “Israel”, or “West Bank” (without being more specific) are likely to be exported by Israel, and encourages consumers to buy from products labelled “Grown in Palestine”.

Read more about its call for a boycott of Israeli dates.

GMO-Free USA has called a boycott of Kellogg's over the company's use of GMOs. The organisation stated that it had tested two Kellogg's cereal products, both of which were found to contain GMOs and glyphosate, the active chemical ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. The campaign claims:

Kellogg’s actively fought against food transparency and contributed nearly $2 million to propaganda campaigns to defeat citizens’ ballot initiatives for mandatory GMO labeling in California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

The campaign says that Kellogg’s spent over $3.6 million lobbying the US government in 2013 and 2014 to fight mandatory GMO labelling, something which it says that over 90% of all Americans want. It says that the pesticides and herbicides that the company used "deplete the soil, harm earthworms and other beneficial non-target organisms, and put the Monarch butterfly, bees and other species in jeopardy."

The campaign is also targeting Kellogg's due to that fact that it 'heavily markets to children'. It asks its supporters to contact the company about its GMO ingredients and lobbying. Thousands of people have signed the petition.

Naturewatch Foundation has a long-standing boycott of L'Oréal due to its continued use of animal testing for cosmetics. The French multinational uses ingredients that have been tested on animals, despite public statements to the contrary. It has also been criticised for lobbying against an EU ban on animal testing for cosmetics.

In 2003, L'Oréal was also reported to be part of the European Federation for Cosmetics Ingredients, a coalition of 70 European cosmetics companies. The organisation launched a legal challenge in the European Courts against the EU's ban on animal testing for cosmetics. 

Naturewatch Foundation has organised protests and other actions against L'Oréal. In 2017, it lifted its boycott call against The Body Shop, a former subsidiary of L'Oréal, after the company was purchased by Natura. Natura responded to Naturewatch Foundation's calls for a rigorous and transparent animal testing policy and has now been endorsed as a cruelty-free brand. However, the campaign against L'Oréal continues.

In December 2021, Naturewatch Foundation told us that Natura & Co purchased an arm of Avon in early 2020. They have not been able to reconfirm the animal testing policy for all of Natura & Co brands and therefore at the current time, we have not renewed their endorsement in the Compassionate Shopping Guide. 

The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) have launched a Global Movement to Boycott Made in China, "to raise awareness about the atrocities committed by the Communist Party of China." The movement outlines four key reasons for the boycott call.

1. Human rights abuses: "When we buy good manufactured in Communist China, we are innocently contributing to a system that imprisons and oppresses anyone who speaks out".
2. Supporting China's military build up: "Every time a consumer buys a product that is 'Made in China' that money helps finance what is essentially the most rapid build up of an expansionist and aggressive totalitarian regime. In fact, thousands of factories and sweatshops are directly owned and operated by the CCP military."
3. Outbreak of Coronavirus: "China hid facts, destroyed evidence and thus deprived the international community of crucial information during the critical initial period."
4. Intrusion of Chinese troops onto Indian soil: in the Galwan Valley, which resulted in the killing of 20 Indian soldiers.

Tibetan civil society organisations have previously called for a boycott of products made in China in protest against the conditions in which some Chinese manufactured goods are made, "by the millions of prisoners in China's forced labour camps."

Naturewatch Foundation launched a boycott call against Method in April 2018, over the company's links to companies that test products on animals. In December 2017, Method and its sister company Ecover were purchased by SC Johnson, a US company that openly admits to testing on animals and owns other non Naturewatch-endorsed household cleaning brands such as Duck, Shout, Glade, Pledge and Windex.

Caroline Ruane, Naturewatch Foundation CEO, said:

It's hugely disappointing to compassionate shoppers when favourite brands compromise their cruelty free credentials by selling out to multinationals that continue to benefit from animal testing.

The boycott has since seen some success with Ecover and Method committing to use their influence to convince SC Johnson to go cruelty-free. However, SC Johnson is yet to do so, and Naturewatch Foundation is asking compassionate consumers to boycott all SC Johnson brands, including Ecover and Method, until the entire company is cruelty-free. Read more about the boycott.

Nestlé has been the subject of boycott calls around the world since the 1970s for its irresponsible marketing of baby milk formula. It is accused of "contributing to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants" through its aggressive marketing practices, which promote baby milk formula as a superior option to breastfeeding despite evidence to the contrary.

The use of formula has been linked to many issues: from increased prevalence of water-borne diseases, where parents do not have access to clean drinking water, to poverty and malnutrition, due to its high cost. As a result, the World Health Assembly has written a strict International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. However, reports show that Nestlé continues to violate the code. 

Nestlé also faces boycott calls from the non-profit The Council of Canadians and and indigenous rights organisation the Lakota People's Law Project over its extraction of scarce water sources. The organisations say that Nestlé continues "to pump millions of litres of water from watersheds" despite serious droughts in recent years, and "to act beyond the boundaries of ecological protection and basic human dignity."

A boycott of the NRA was called after the organisation called for teachers to be armed in schools following the killing of 17 pupils at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018.

The organisation also received criticism over its social media responses to the shooting. It posted "Stand and High for our Kids' Safety by Joining NRA" on its Facebook page on the day of widespread protests for gun control and aired a video on its NRATV Youtube Channel titled 'A March for Their Lies', addressing Parkland student campaigners about their involvement in the gun control marches. In March 2018, it launched a lawsuit challenging Florida’s newly enacted law which bans the purchase of firearms by anyone under 21.

The boycott call covers companies that do business with the NRA. It has seen huge success, with multiple brands include Delta Airlines, Chubb and Enterprise Rent–A–Car cutting ties.

A coalition of 21 organisations have called a boycott of Pillsbury, over its links to Israeli apartheid.

The company, which is owned by General Mills, was named on the UN's list of companies in violation of Palestinian rights, published in February 2020. According to the report, General Mills is operating a Pillsbury factoring in the Atarot Industrial Zone, an illegal Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.

American Muslims for Palestine, which is part of the multiethnic, multifaith, diverse coalition stated:

The operation of this Pillsbury factory has displaced, stifled, and harmed local Palestinian land, livelihoods, and lives. It violates international law by exploiting land, water, and other resources belonging to the Palestinian people.

Pillsbury sells baked goods.

“While Pillsbury products are not widely available for sale in the UK, its owner General Mills also owns several iconic brands in the UK, such as Betty Crocker, Green Giant, Häagen-Dazs, Jus-Rol, Nature Valley and Old El Paso.”

The #BoycottPuma campaign was launched by Palestinian athletes in 2018 after 200 Palestinian sports clubs sent a letter to the company urging it to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes teams based in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories.

The UN’s special adviser on sport for development and peace, and several human rights organisations, have previously called on Fifa to ban the six settlement teams. BDS says that "Puma’s sponsorship brings international legitimacy to the IFA’s actions."

The campaign also highlights the abusive treatment of Palestinian footballers, who it says are routinely attacked, imprisoned and killed, and denied freedom of movement and the right to attend matches.

In July 2018, Adidas announced that it would no longer be sponsoring the IFA, following an international campaign and a petition of over 16,000 signatures. BDS calls on Puma to follow suit.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for an international trade embargo. On Monday March 7th, speaking in a video address, Zelensky said:

“If the invasion continues and Russia has not abandoned its plans against Ukraine, then a new sanctions package is needed…”

This includes

“a boycott of Russian exports, in particular the rejection of oil and oil products from Russia.”

He also said that Russia should also not receive goods and services from abroad “if [Russia] doesn’t want to abide by civilised rules.” 

As a result of the country-wide boycott call, businesses and retailers have responded with a historically unprecedented speed. Netflix, Spotify and Apple have suspended services in Russia entirely. VW, Mercedes, Ikea, Estee Lauder, H&M, Nike, and Asos were also listed on March 2nd as having taken action in this issue. 

Since then around 200 other companies have joined a list being maintained on Wikipedia.

McDonalds and Coca-Cola joined the list of companies suspending operations in Russia, following boycott calls after they initially failed to speak out.

Around 30 international sporting federations have also joined the boycott including FIFA, football's global governing body, which has announced that it was suspending all Russian teams from international competition until further notice. 

In addition, a wide range of education, science and research collaborations with Russian institutions have been paused or otherwise affected. Some finance firms have also begun a process of divestment.

On March 9th a new website boycottrussia.info was launched to list companies taking action and those not. It also has a list of advertisers on Russian state TV.

On March 10th a new website was launched listing full details of the 100 financial institutions most heavily entangled in Russian oil and gas at Putin100.org

At the time of writing, the number of companies criticised for not withdrawing was running at around 20 major names.

Sabra hummus brand is part-owned by The Strauss Group. The Strauss Group is Israel's second biggest food company and has been identified as a target of the BDS movement, which stated: "Sabra hummus is a joint venture between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that provides financial support to the Israel Defense Forces."

The company was originally targetted over its support for two notorious Israeli military units, Golani and Givati. These brigades committed atrocities during Israel's 2009-10 deadly assault on Gaza. Their members were known to use horrific imagery on t-shirts, such as a pregnant Palestinian woman in a sniper's cross-hairs, with the slogan “one shot, two kills”.  The company previously claimed to have "adopted” the two platoons and provided the soldiers with food and personal care packages. 

Sabra hummus is sold by retailers in the UK including Sainsburys and Tesco. Sabra is also owned by PepsiCo, which manufactures Sabra products in the USA. Read our article on the Israel boycott here.

SodaStream has long faced a boycott call over its “complicity in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian human rights”, according to the BDS movement.

Sodastream faced a global boycott call due to owning a factory in the illegally occupied West Bank. In 2015 after intense public pressure Sodastream closed this factory and left the West Bank.

However, following this success, the BDS movement clarified that it continued to call for a boycott of Sodastream, claiming that its factory in the Nagaq was complicit in the displacement of indigenous Bedoin-Palestinians. BDS also stated, “SodaStream's mistreatment of and discrimination against Palestinian workers is not forgotten either.”

The BDS National Committee told Ethical Consumer:

“Far from reducing its direct contribution to human rights abuses, SodaStream’s factory in the Rahat area in the Naqab (Negev) amounts to conscious participation in Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse tens of thousands of Bedouin Palestinian citizens of Israel from their ancestral lands.”

The Israeli government has long-standing policies to force the Bedouin communities of the Naqab off of their traditional lands and into “authorised” townships. The 2011 Prawer Plan aimed to displace at least 40,000 people and, although it was officially put on hold in 2013, it seems that it will still be carried out in a modified form. Tens of thousands of Palestinians live in unrecognized villages in the Naqab and are denied basic services such as electricity, water and education. 

In August 2018, Sodastream was purchased by PepsiCo. The boycott of Sodastream continues.

The International Campaign for the Rohingya is calling for a consumer boycott of jewellery company Harry Winston and its owner, Swatch. The campaign states “Myanmar produces more than 90% of the world’s rubies and jade [...] Because it dominates Burma's gemstone industry, the Myanmar military profits when high-end jewellery retailers – like Harry Winston (owned by Swatch) – buy Burmese gems for their collections.”

The campaign group is asking people in London to make an appointment at one of Harry Winston’s swanky stores, to request to see jewellery containing rubies, then explain to the manager that you’ll never buy there as long as it buys gems that fund the Myanmar military. 

For the fainter hearted, there’s also a petition, currently on over 23,000 signatures.

Grab Your Wallet has called a boycott of Trump and those companies that are supporting him over his regressive policies on climate change and his attitude to equality and discrimination issues.

In April 2020, Ethical Consumer looked at those supporting Trump, who had links to companies that were consumer facing in the UK.

UK brands with the clearest links to major Trump donors

1. Chevron (Texaco)

2. Blackstone (Ancestry.com, Bumble, Badoo, and 10% of Oatly)

3. Oracle computer software

4. Estee Lauder cosmetics (including Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, MAC)

Many other companies had some links. However, these were often found to be complicated, very opaque and were from individuals - sometimes opposed by the companies themselves.

In 2020, several companies were found to have severed ties with Trump. For example Les Wexner, ex-CEO of L Brands, which owns Victoria's Secret, and was previously a big donor, left the Republican party after Trump’s comments regarding the far-right protest in Charlottesville.

Grab Your Wallet has an up-to-date list of all companies and organisations to boycott.

The UK Boycott Turkey campaign is focused on international solidarity and action against the regime in Turkey, working with Kurdish and Turkish civil society groups.

The campaign highlights institutions and corporations that are complicit in the oppressive policies of the Turkish state. The current regime in Turkey is quick to imprison political opponents who criticise the state or its assaults on Kurds. Academics, journalists and elected politicians are routinely jailed for using their right to free speech.

UK Boycott Turkey are asking consumers to avoid supporting the Turkish government by avoiding taking holidays to Turkey. Turkish holding companies own travel companies and hotels also own arms companies. 

Consumers can also boycott the brands that are intricately tied up with the regime, primarily Beko and Grundig under Koç Holdings. They make a range of white goods such as fridges and freezers, cookers, and washing machines.

Read more about the Turkey boycott call here.

In January 2016, 2,212 academics working in, or researching on, Turkey signed a declaration calling on the Turkish government to end the war in the Kurdish region. They demanded a peaceful resolution of the decades-long Kurdish question, and allow international observers to monitor the situation in Kurdish towns and cities destroyed by security forces.

Since then, the signatories, who came to be known as Academics for Peace, have been subjected to vindictive and punitive attacks from the government and the higher education establishment. They are calling for a targeted boycott of a number of academic institutions involved in these attacks.

The boycott was called after Wendy's refused to join the Fair Food Program (FFP). The campaign says:

For over seven years, hundreds of thousands of farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their consumer allies have demanded verifiable protections against sexual violence, forced labor and other human rights abuses in Wendy’s supply chain by joining the Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program.

The FFP is a social responsibility program that addresses decades-old farm labour abuses, faced by essential migrant workers. All Wendy's major competitors such as McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and Taco Bell have signed up. Those that sign up agree to purchase exclusively from suppliers meeting the code of conduct including a zero-tolerance policy for slavery and sexual harassment. The boycott has been backed by multiple individuals and organisations.

The campaign says that Wendy's has bowed to pressure from the national boycott, moving its tomato purchasing away from Mexico's abusive industry to greenhouse operations in the U.S. and Canada, but that "Wendy’s assurances that working conditions are fine in their greenhouse suppliers’ operations ring hollow when compared to the hard evidence of harsh conditions faced by workers in greenhouses".

'WTF WWF' is a decentralised campaign group born out of XR Youth Solidarity. It is calling for a boycott of WWF, claiming "Over the last few years there has been an increasing level of exposure around the ongoing human rights abuses and land grabs committed in the name of wildlife conservation by WWF. Several investigations looking into WWF complicity in such alleged abuses have found significant evidence proving the organization’s role in various forms of violence and abuse towards local and indigenous communities living in and around WWF-supported “protected” areas." WTF WWF's open letter has been signed by organisations ranging from Survival International and the Pan-African Living Cultures Alliance, to individuals including Arturo Escobar.

Survival International has repeatedly criticised WWF for its failure to take responsibility for human rights abuses. It states "Dozens of Indigenous and local people have been raped, murdered and tortured by rangers funded by WWF, which has known about the abuses for decades but done little to address them." A US Congressional Committee hearing heard an independent expert underline the "continued impacts of colonialism in conservation", accused the WWF of "shocking deception" and warned that "WWF won't change their behaviour unless forced to do so".