Shell agrees to settle $2.1m lawsuit over Greenpeace protest

Campaign group will pay no money to oil and gas company, but will donate £300,000 to RNLI

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 (£1.6m) 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”.

The spokesperson added: “For Shell, the right to protest is fundamental and has never been at issue. Instead, this case was about an illegal boarding by protesters which a high court judge described as ‘putting their lives and, indirectly, the lives of the crew at risk’. He was also clear that Greenpeace could still protest from a safe distance and their human rights were not infringed.”

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. The green organisation is also being sued by the Italian oil company ENI.

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.

Greenpeace said the four sites in question are mostly declining fields where the group had no plans to take direct action, and that Greenpeace would continue to campaign against Shell including in the North Sea.

The Greenpeace UK co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, said: “This settlement shows that people power works. Thousands of ordinary people across the country backed our fight against Shell, and their support means we stay independent and can keep holding big oil to account. We’ve ensured not a penny of our supporters’ money will go to Shell, and all funds raised will be used to continue campaigning against the fossil fuel industry and other big polluters.

“This legal battle might be over, but big oil’s dirty tricks aren’t going away. With Greenpeace facing further legal battles around the world, we won’t stop campaigning until the fossil fuel industry stops drilling and starts paying for the damage it is causing to people and planet.”

Cover photo; Greenpeace activists attempt to board a Shell oil platform being transported through the Atlantic Ocean near Gran Canaria, Spain, in January 2023. Photograph: Getty Images