SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace Worldwide and Greenpeace organisations within the US announce they are going to search a brand new trial and, if vital, enchantment the choice with the North Dakota Supreme Court docket following a North Dakota District Court docket judgment at present awarding Power Switch (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP go well with stays a blatant try to silence free speech, erase Indigenous management of the Standing Rock motion, and punish solidarity with peaceable resistance to the Dakota Entry Pipeline. Greenpeace Worldwide may also proceed to hunt damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits below EU anti-SLAPP laws within the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace Worldwide Government Director stated: “Power Switch’s makes an attempt to silence us are failing. Greenpeace Worldwide will proceed to withstand intimidation techniques. We won’t be silenced. We’ll solely get louder, becoming a member of our voices to these of our allies all all over the world towards the company polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise earnings over folks and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms below risk and the local weather disaster accelerating, the stakes of this authorized battle couldn’t be larger. By way of appeals within the US and Greenpeace Worldwide’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case within the Netherlands, we’re exploring each choice to carry Power Switch accountable for a number of abusive lawsuits and present all power-hungry bullies that their assaults will solely lead to a stronger people-powered motion.”
The Court docket’s ultimate judgment at present rejects a number of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, however nonetheless awards a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} to ET with out a sound foundation in regulation. The Greenpeace defendants will proceed to press their arguments that the US Structure doesn’t permit legal responsibility right here, that ET didn’t current proof to assist its claims, that the Court docket admitted inflammatory and irrelevant proof at trial and excluded different proof supporting the protection, and that the jury pool in Mandan couldn’t be neutral.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits towards Greenpeace Worldwide and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits trying to bury nonprofits and activists in authorized charges, push them in the direction of chapter and in the end silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace Worldwide, which is predicated within the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a go well with towards ET below Dutch regulation and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark take a look at of the brand new laws which might assist set a strong precedent towards company bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, stated: “That is a part of a worrying pattern globally: fossil gasoline companies are more and more utilizing litigation to assault and silence unusual folks and teams utilizing the regulation to problem their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to those techniques right here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling impact on democracy and public curiosity litigation — we should unite towards these silencing techniques as dangerous for Australians and dangerous for our democracy. Our motion is stronger than any company bully, and grows even stronger when below assault.”
Power Switch’s SLAPPs are a part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Huge Oil firms like Shell, Whole, and ENI towards Greenpeace entities in recent times.[3] A few these circumstances have been efficiently stopped of their tracks. This contains Greenpeace France efficiently defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace Worldwide forcing Shell to again down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
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Pictures out there in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court docket Choose Gion follows a jury verdict discovering Greenpeace entities responsible for greater than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Choose Gion subsequently threw out a number of objects from the jury’s verdict, decreasing the overall damages to roughly US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the unbiased Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Power Switch’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court docket in 2017 below the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob exercise. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the decide stating the proof fell “far quick” of what was wanted to ascertain a RICO enterprise. The federal court docket didn’t determine on Power Switch’s claims based mostly on state regulation, so Power Switch promptly filed a brand new case in a North Dakota state court docket with these and different state regulation claims.
[4] Greenpeace Worldwide despatched a Discover of Legal responsibility to Power Switch on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline large of Greenpeace Worldwide’s intention to deliver an anti-SLAPP lawsuit towards the corporate in a Dutch Court docket. After Power Switch declined to just accept legal responsibility on a number of events (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace Worldwide initiated the primary take a look at of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by submitting a lawsuit in Dutch court docket towards Power Switch. The case was formally registered within the docket of the Court docket of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace Worldwide seeks to recuperate all damages and prices it has suffered because of Power Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} from Greenpeace Worldwide and the Greenpeace organisations within the US. The following listening to within the Court docket of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or [email protected]
