I think you can make a case that the responsibility is a metaphorical chain. If you do something, eg make a phone through a complex chain, you need to make sure

I think you can make a case that the responsibility is a metaphorical chain. If you do something, eg make a phone through a complex chain, you need to make sure all the parts of your system are ethical: dangers are minimized, people have sensible working conditions, etc. If you could just stop being responsible as soon as you sign a contract with a subcontractor, it would be very easy to avoid any responsibility. Simply set up everything as another company, or get real subcontractors. Then hide behind "but I told him to treat everyone fairly, see this contract?" In addition the subcontractor could do the same, and nobody would have to check any of the unpleasant stuff. The brand name could just hide behind people who hide behind non-brands (who really shops at Foxxconn?). The fact is in the modern world we have these things called brands that people associate with positive or negative vibes, and we use them because we really don't have enough attention to dig deeply. The brand is an investment into making a positive vibe that hopefully is a true signal. If it's not, people are misled and they end up buying things that they didn't want (though GDP doesn't suffer, that's another story).