North Dakota Supreme Court Issues Anti-Suit Injunction Blocking Greenpeace International’s Dutch Countersuit Against Energy Transfer

The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Greenpeace International should not be allowed to pursue a lawsuit in the Netherlands. The court issued a rare anti-suit injunction ordering a lower court to block Greenpeace International from pursuing its countersuit in the Netherlands, where the group is based.

It directed the lower court to issue a narrowly tailored order to stop the Dutch case.

It is rare for a court in one country to try to block a lawsuit in another country. The ruling is the latest development in a long-running legal fight between Greenpeace and Energy Transfer that centers on protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline a decade ago.

Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of leading the protests and sued for defamation and interference with business operations, among other claims.

A jury awarded Energy Transfer nearly $670 million in its lawsuit against Greenpeace last year. A judge later reduced the jury award against Greenpeace to $345 million. Greenpeace USA has said it may need to file for bankruptcy because of the size of the damages.

Energy Transfer won a verdict totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in damages last year against several separate Greenpeace organizations. Greenpeace International countersued under Dutch law. Greenpeace International's countersuit argues that Energy Transfer’s case was a SLAPP lawsuit.

SLAPP is short for Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation. North Dakota does not have anti-SLAPP provisions. The Netherlands has anti-SLAPP regulations on its books. Greenpeace maintained that it had played only a supporting role in peaceful protests.

The court fight has pitted Energy Transfer's claims against Greenpeace's assertion of a limited, non-leading part in the demonstrations from a decade earlier.