Just over a year ago, Shell\u00a0sued Greenpeace UK, Greenpeace International and nine individuals for millions<\/a>\u00a0over a completely peaceful protest. We showed them their bully tactics won\u2019t intimidate us \u2013 and now they\u2019ve backed down and settled out of court.\u00a0<\/p>\n And we\u2019ve made sure not a penny of our supporters\u2019 money will go to Shell. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n Last year, six Greenpeace activists\u00a0boarded a Shell-contracted ship<\/a>\u00a0in the Atlantic carrying a key piece of equipment to drill for new oil in the North Sea.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the protest ended, the only damage Shell could find was a padlock which, they alleged, our activists broke. That\u2019s it. Yet they came after us with a million-dollar lawsuit, which they justified for their spending on safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n They demanded $1m in damages \u2013 and planned to spend another $10m in legal fees, which we could have had to pay if we lost the case.<\/p>\n For a company that made\u00a0\u00a322.4 billion in profits<\/a>\u00a0last year alone, this is peanuts. For Greenpeace UK, this would have been one of the biggest threats we\u2019ve faced in our 50-year history.\u00a0<\/p>\n But for Shell, this was never about the money. The real reasons behind their suit were revealed when, during early negotiations, the company offered to withdraw the case if we promised never to take action against their rigs, at port and at sea \u2013 forever. The mask slipped. This was a textbook\u00a0\u00a0SLAPP suit<\/a> (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) \u2013 a bullying legal tactic designed to intimidate critics.<\/p>\n Thanks to\u00a0our incredible supporters<\/a>, Shell backed down from their unreasonable demands. A sustained, year-long campaign against the suit, supported by celebrities including\u00a0Joe Lycett<\/a>, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson, turned the legal move into a PR embarrassment for Shell. The case was\u00a0dubbed<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0\u2018Cousin Greg\u2019 lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0by Forbes after a\u00a0scene<\/a>\u00a0in the Emmy-awarded drama Succession, in which the hapless character threatens to sue Greenpeace to universal dismay.<\/p>\n As part of the settlement, not a penny of our supporters\u2019 money will go to Shell. Instead, we have agreed to donate \u00a3300,000 to our brave friends at the RNLI whose mission to save lives at sea has become even more important as climate change\u00a0supercharges storms and floods<\/a>\u00a0around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n We have also agreed not to protest at three of Shell\u2019s oil and gas fields for the next five years and at a fourth one for the next ten years, all of them in the North Sea. These are largely declining fields where Shell has been drilling for years and where we had no plans to intervene by direct action.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Even so, we don\u2019t like having to make this kind of concession to a fossil fuel company, but the alternative could have been much worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is the absurd nature of SLAPP suits: even if Greenpeace had gone on to win the case, we could still have ended up worse off than by settling the case at this early stage.<\/p>\n This settlement has no impact on our future campaign plans and allows us to continue to vociferously campaign against Big Oil<\/a>, to demand that it stops drilling and starts paying for all the harm their business has caused.<\/p>\n Thanks to the thousands of generous, passionate supporters who have donated to Greenpeace\u2019s\u00a0Shell legal fund, we now have even more resources to ramp up our fight against the fossil fuel industry<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n And while this legal battle might be over, Big Oil\u2019s dirty tricks aren\u2019t going away. Greenpeace faces further legal battles around the world, including a\u00a0lawsuit in North Dakota<\/a>\u00a0for over $300 million which threatens the very existence of Greenpeace in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Australia, we\u2019re also seeing an increase in SLAPP suits \u2013 Santos\u2019 aggressive tactics against the Environmental Defenders Office<\/a> being the latest example, ending with EDO agreeing to pay a whopping $9 million dollars in costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n But we\u2019ve\u00a0never been ones to run from a fight\u00a0\u2013 and we don\u2019t intend to start now. With our supporters behind us, we will ramp up our campaigning until the fossil fuel industry stops drilling and starts paying for the damage it is causing to people and planet.<\/p>\nWhy did Shell sue Greenpeace?<\/h2>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org.au\/static\/planet4-australiapacific-stateless\/2024\/12\/c3732c21-gp0stvcq7.jpg\" "\\"In")
How Greenpeace fought back \u2013 and created a PR disaster for Shell<\/h2>\n
How was the case settled?<\/h2>\n
What happens next?<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Coal](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org.au\/static\/planet4-australiapacific-stateless\/2024\/08\/66f2daab-gp0stpqhm-1024x683.jpg\" "\\"Coal")
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