Just a year ago, Shell sued Greenpeace UK, Greenpeace International and nine others for millions of dollars over entirely peaceful protests. We showed them that their bullying tactics will not intimidate us. Now they have retreated and taken their positions outside the court.
And we made sure that not a penny of our supporters’ money went to Shell. Here’s what you need to know:
Why did Shell sue Greenpeace?
Last year, six Greenpeace activists boarded a ship contracted by Shell in the Atlantic Ocean carrying key equipment for new oil drilling in the North Sea.
When the protest ended, the only damage Shell could find were the locks broken by our activists. That’s it. But they filed a million-dollar lawsuit, justifying their spending on safety.
They were seeking $1 million in damages and were planning to spend another $10 million in legal fees if we lost the case.
For a company that made £22.4 billion in profits last year alone, this is peanuts. For Greenpeace UK, this may have been one of the biggest threats we have faced in our 50-year history.
But for Shell it has never been about money. The real reason for the lawsuit came to light during early negotiations when the company offered to withdraw the lawsuit if they promised not to take action against their equipment in port and at sea forever. The mask slipped. This was a textbook SLAPP Suit – Harassment legal tactics designed to intimidate critics.
SLAPP stands for Strategic Litigation for Public Participation. Shell’s lawsuit is widely known as a SLAPP lawsuit. The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, made up of leading media organizations, lawyers and rights groups, issued a statement in support of Greenpeace.
How Greenpeace fought back – leading to a public relations disaster for Shell
Thanks to our amazing supporters, Shell withdrew their unreasonable demands. A year-long campaign against the case, backed by celebrities including Joe Lycett, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson, turned the legal move into a public relations problem for Shell. The incident dubbed that ‘Cousin Greg’ lawsuit After Forbes scene In the Emmy Award-winning drama Succession, a hapless character threatens to shock the world by suing Greenpeace.
How was the case resolved?
As part of the agreement, not a penny of our supporters’ money will go to Shell. Instead, we have agreed to donate £300,000 to our brave friends at the RNLI, whose mission to save lives at sea has become more important as climate change causes storms and flooding around the world.
We also agreed not to protest at three of Shell’s oil and gas fields for the next five years and the fourth, all located in the North Sea, for the next 10 years. This is an area where Shell has been drilling for many years and has no plans to intervene with direct action, and has declined significantly.
Still, while we don’t like making these kinds of concessions to fossil fuel companies, the alternative could have been much worse.
This is the outrageous nature of SLAPP lawsuits. Even if Greenpeace won the case, the outcome could have been worse than settling the case at an early stage.
This agreement does not affect our future campaign plans and allows us to continue campaigning for Big Oil to demand that they stop drilling and pay for any damage caused by their operations.
What happens next?
We are grateful to the thousands of generous and passionate supporters who have donated to our company. Shell Legal FundNow we have more resources to fight the fossil fuel industry.
The legal battle is over, but Big Oil’s dirty tricks won’t go away. Greenpeace faces additional legal challenges around the world. North Dakota Lawsuit This is an amount of over $300 million that threatens the very existence of Greenpeace in the United States.
But we are not ones to run away from a fight, and we have no intention of starting now. Together with our supporters, we will strengthen our campaign until the fossil fuel industry stops drilling and starts paying for the damage it causes to people and the planet.
