The entire branding side of fair-trade is based on the idea that there is a sales boost from advertising that you treat your workers fairly. So an obvious exam

The entire branding side of fair-trade is based on the idea that there is a sales boost from advertising that you treat your workers fairly. So an obvious example would be Starbucks' investment in fair-trade coffee. [edit] but this only is profitable if people are basing purchasing decisions on it. Before this current furore, there was very little press about these issues, so if from this a 'fair-trade' hardware movement emerges, it would then be profitable for Apple to exploit it, but in the absence of one it isn't.