Dutch Court News

Shell is suing Greenpeace for $2.1 million in damages after the environmental group's activists boarded the company's oil production vessel in transit at sea this year, according to Greenpeace and a document seen by Reuters.The British oil and gas major filed the claim in London's High Court. Greenpeace activists boarded the vessel in January near the Canary Islands off the Atlantic coast of northern Africa to protest oil drilling and traveled on it as far as Norway.In an email to Reuters…

Dozens of Greenpeace activists in Rotterdam port used a ship, buoys and a small flotilla of kayaks on Monday to block traffic around Shell’s Pernis refinery, Europe’s largest, as part of a campaign seeking a ban on fossil fuel advertising.Police ended the blockade after several hours and the port’s authority said economic disruption to the wider harbor was minimal.The action comes as Greenpeace and more than 20 other environmental groups began seeking a million signatures for a European Union-wide ban on adverts and sponsorships by oil and gas companies…

A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled in favor of Inmarsat in a dispute over the use of 5G bandwidth in the Netherlands, ordering the government to suspend a decision to reserve the bandwidth for telecommunications as of Sept. 1, 2022.Inmarsat currently uses the 3.5 MHz frequency for satellite communications with distressed ships. The Rotterdam District Court said in a summary of its ruling that the state had "insufficiently understood" the importance of that use and wrongly made it…

A landmark lawsuit filed against Guyana's government, arguing that oil production fuels climate change, could bolster legal action as court cases involving energy companies and state authorities surge, according to lawyers and environmentalists.The constitutional claim - the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean - asserts that oil exploration and production led by U.S. oil major ExxonMobil off the South American country's coast is unconstitutional, said the case's lead lawyer Melinda Janki.Filed by two Guyanese citizens in late May before the tiny nation's constitutional court, the lawsuit centers on the duty of the state to protect the environment for present and future generations…

In May 2014 National Geographic wrote an in-depth article on shipbreaking operations in Bangladesh where they listed shipbreaking as one of the deadliest professions in the world. The images from these shipyards are well circulated among professionals in the shipping industry. Individuals without personal protective equipment cutting and grinding into a ship that was haphazardly beached and torn asunder by unskilled laborers. Pollution swirl in the nearby tidal area and soot belches into the air. Large sections of ships come careening off endless rows of vessels that litter the beach.

The Dutch shipping company Seatrade and two of its directors were found guilty by a Dutch court on Thursday of illegally sailing ships to India to have them demolished, the first criminal case of its kind in the Netherlands. The company and the directors were fined up to 750,000 euros ($925,275). The directors were also banned from executive roles at any shipping company for a year. They did escape the prison sentences prosecutors had asked for. The court said Seatrade had violated European Union rules by sending four ships to India for demolition in 2012.

For the first time in Europe, Public Prosecutors are bringing criminal charges against a ship owner – Seatrade – for having sold vessels to scrap yards in countries “where current ship dismantling methods endanger the lives and health of workers and pollute the environment”. The case is being heard in a Rotterdam Court this week, and the Dutch Public Prosecutor calls for a hefty fine (2.35 mill EUR) and confiscation of the profits Seatrade made on the illegal sale of four ships, as well as a six month prison sentence for three of Seatrade’s top executives. Seatrade is based in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is the largest reefer operator in the world.

A Dutch court on Tuesday rejected a bid by Dutch marine engineer Boskalis to have a shareholder vote on anti-takeover protections in place at smaller rival Fugro, in which it holds a 20 percent stake.   The legal challenge was closely followed because of the potential for it to set a non-binding precedent concerning poison pill protections in place at two thirds of all Dutch listed companies.   At hearings on Tuesday, Boskalis said Fugro's anti-takeover measures were disproportionate. Fugro rejected Boskalis's claim, saying that its offer to discuss its anti-takeover measures at a shareholder meeting without holding a vote was adequate.     (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; editing by Susan Thomas)

A Netherlands-based subsidiary of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's bankrupt shipbuilding and shipleasing unit OSX Brasil SA suspended payments to creditors after being granted protection by a Dutch court. According to a securities filing on Thursday, OSX sought protection for its OSX WHP 1&2 Leasing BV unit after an unnamed "alleged creditor" asked a court to order payment in a way that threatened OSX's obligations to other creditors. OSX WHP was created to finance the building of two fixed, offshore oil-production platforms for bankrupt sister oil company Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA.

Recent guidance handed down by the European Court of Justice which rules that off-spec fuel oil does not have to be handled as waste is a triumph of common sense which will be welcomed by all suppliers of fuel oils and bunkers. Shell Nederland and Shell Belgium were disputing a ruling by the Dutch environmental authorities (ILENT) which wanted to force them to handle a parcel of diesel oil rejected by a Belgian client as waste, when in fact Shell intended to up-blend the fuel to specification for selling on. Carel van Lynden, a partner with the shipping and offshore team at AKD in Rotterdam, says, “This is a good decision for bunker suppliers. This case reverses the very strict interpretation which ILENT had placed on off-spec bunkers.

Dutch Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster NV bought fellow dredger Dragapor from the Portuguese government. The unit, which was put up for sale in December, will be merged with Boskalis' local subsidiary Sociedade Portuguesa de Dragagens Lda. No financial details of the deal were disclosed. Dragapor has about 20 employees and a fleet consisting of two dredgers, some barges, a cutter suction dredger, a hopper dredger and a lift barge. Boskalis, the world's largest dredger, said the acquisition would be of economic importance to its position in southern Europe and fitted its policy of home market positioning. Earlier this year, Boskalis launched a 643 million euro ($620 million) hostile bid for Dutch construction and dredging firm Hollandsche Beton Groep (HBG).