Shell has agreed to settle its controversial multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Greenpeace after its campaigners boarded an oil rig last year as part of a peaceful protest. The oil company threatened to sue Greenpeace for $2.1m in damages in one of the biggest legal threats against the group after its campaigners occupied a moving oil platform off the coast of the Canary Islands for 13 days to protest against the damage to the climate caused by Shell.
As part of the final settlement, Greenpeace will accept no liability and pay no money to Shell. The group will instead donate 300,000 to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Shell said the company was pleased that the dispute was settled and that a payment in lieu of the costs it incurred can benefit a charity working on safety at sea.
Greenpeace had described the intimidation lawsuit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation (Slapp), which is a type of lawsuit typically brought by wealthy corporations to silence critics. The campaign group also faces a legal threat in the US from Energy Transfer, a US pipeline company, over the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016, which Greenpeace claims represents an existential threat to its presence in the US.
As part of its settlement with Shell, Greenpeace has signed a legally binding commitment to Shell UK and the high court that prohibits the group from carrying out similar actions at or near key oil and gas platforms in the North Sea for five to 10 years.
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