ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) and Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) join Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries to express unwavering solidarity with Greenpeace in the wake of the deeply unjust verdict handed down by a North Dakota, United States jury for more than $600 million in damages against Greenpeace entities—including Greenpeace Inc., Greenpeace Fund, and Greenpeace International—in an outrageous Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).
Morton County jury of nine reached a verdict in Energy Transfer’s meritless lawsuit against Greenpeace entities in the US and Greenpeace International, finding the entities liable for more than US$660 million, on March 19, 2025, Big Oil Bullies around the world will continue to try to silence free speech and peaceful protest against Energy Transfer, a company that runs one of the largest fossil fuel pipeline networks and associated energy infrastructure in the US. Its founder and Executive Chairman is Texan billionaire Kelcy Warren, a key financial supporter of Donald Trump. In April 2016, tribal members set up prayer encampments to voice objections to the route ET had chosen for its Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), and organised powerful displays of resistance to corporate power that clearly rattled Big Oil.
Energy Transfer’s lawsuits are examples of SLAPPs, the questionable lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.
ET’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on the state law so ET promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
Big Oil companies Shell, Total, and ENI have also filed SLAPPs against Greenpeace entities in recent years.
A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
Notably, a report by the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) documented 1049 SLAPP suits in Europe in the period 2010-2023, with 166 lawsuits initiated in 2023.
In February 2025, GPI initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against ET. GPI is seeking to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of ET’s meritless lawsuits.
Since 2017, GPI and Greenpeace entities in the US have been defending against ET’s brazen lawsuits, filed in the wake of the 2016 Indigenous-led protests against its Dakota Access Pipeline, which ET claims were orchestrated by Greenpeace. ET’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. ET promptly filed a new case recycling similar arguments in a North Dakota state court, now packaged as claims for defamation, conspiracy and other torts. The jury trial is opened on February 24, 2025. North Dakota lacks anti-SLAPP legislation.
Energy Transfer’s lawsuits are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs. Like all SLAPPs, ET’s lawsuits have been an attempt to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silenced.
Based in the Netherlands, Greenpeace International is citing Dutch law on torts and abuse of rights, as well as Chapter V of the EU Directive, adopted in 2024, which protects organisations based in the EU against SLAPPs outside the EU, and entitles them to compensation.
Directive (EU) 2024/1069 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded claims or abusive court proceedings (‘Strategic lawsuits against public participation’). Directive (EU) 2024/1069, Chapter V, provides protection against third-country judgments.
The Directive, along with existing Dutch law, paves the way for GPI to pursue remedies against three entities in ET’s corporate group, specifically Energy Transfer LP, Energy Transfer Operating LP, and Dakota Access LLC, for the damage it has suffered and continues to suffer as a result of the SLAPP suits and related actions in the US.
The Netherlands, like all EU Member States, has until May 2026 to transpose the Directive into national law. But the Dutch government has stated existing Dutch law can and should be interpreted as giving effect to Chapter V of the Directive, with no need for amendment.
Greenpeace International sent Energy Transfer a Notice of Liability in July 2024, summoning it to withdraw its lawsuit in North Dakota and pay damages, or face legal action. Energy Transfer refused to do so.
The EU’s anti-SLAPP Directive comes into force amid the fossil fuel industry’s widespread misuse of legal systems to target environmental watchdogs, and any critics, part of a wider trend of increasing SLAPPs. A report by the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) documented 1,049 SLAPP suits in Europe in the period 2010-2023, with 166 lawsuits initiated in 2023. The number of SLAPPs in Europe continues to rise.
Big Oil companies Shell, Total, and ENI have also filed SLAPPs against Greenpeace entities in recent years, with Shell and Total’s attempts at silencing already ending in embarrassment. On December 10, 2024, Greenpeace International and Greenpeace UK agreed with Shell to settle the oil giant’s multimillion US dollar intimidation lawsuit over a peaceful protest conducted by the campaign groups in 2023.
The settlement followed over a year of sustained campaigning by Greenpeace against Shell’s lawsuit. Experts have described the case as a SLAPP, a type of abusive lawsuit commonly brought by wealthy corporations to silence critics.
The Greenpeace defendants faced over $11 million USD in damages and legal costs as a result of the lawsuit. As part of the final settlement, they will accept no liability and pay no money to Shell, instead agreeing to donate £300,000 to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
They also agreed to avoid protesting for a period at four Shell sites in the northern North Sea. The sites in question are mostly declining fields where the Greenpeace defendants had no plans to take direct action. Greenpeace continues to campaign against Shell including in the North Sea.
In such a backdrop, the alarming decision by the jury in USA is a dangerous escalation in corporate attacks on civil society, aimed at chilling future protests, and silencing those who dare to stand in defense of people and the planet. It also further undermines the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who has been resisting Energy Transfer’s efforts to force the Dakota Access Pipeline through their land and drinking water supply. Greenpeace, answering the Tribe’s call for solidarity, stood alongside hundreds of Tribes and tens of thousands of water protectors from around the world in nonviolent resistance at Standing Rock.
This jury verdict is not confined to targeting Greenpeace—it is an attack on fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and the right to protest. It is an attack on Indigenous sovereignty. It is an attack on the collective ability to resist environmental destruction and corporate crimes.
This verdict is a troubling reminder of the urgent need to defend democracy, free speech, and the right to a livable planet across the globe. The fact remains no lawsuit can extinguish the power of just collective action.
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