Resolute Forest Products, Inc. v. Greenpeace International

The federal district court for the Northern District of California ordered a forest product company and affiliated companies to pay Greenpeace defendants more than $800,000 in attorney’s fees and costs after the defendants brought a successful anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) motion against the companies’ claims that the defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and were liable under state law, including for defamation and tortious interference with prospective and contractual business relations. The forest product company had alleged that Greenpeace’s campaign labeling the company a “Forest Destroyer” and a major contributor to climate change was “malicious, false, misleading, and without any reasonable factual basis.” In 2019, the court dismissed almost all of the companies’ claims, except for a single defamation claim and a related claim under California’s Unfair Competition Law arising from allegations related to a single set of statements.

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The federal district court for the Northern District of California allowed a defamation claim by forest products companies to proceed against the environmental groups Greenpeace, Inc., Greenpeace International, and three Greenpeace employees. The court found that the companies alleged all the elements of a defamation claim, including actual malice, with respect to one alleged statement in which a Greenpeace employee said the companies had logged in the Montagnes Blanches in Quebec when she was on notice that the statement was not true. The court also allowed the companies to proceed with an Unfair Competition Law claim against these five defendants based on the viable defamation claim. The court, however, found that almost 300 alleged statements by the defendants were not actionable, including statements that the companies were “bad news for the climate” and that the companies’ practices had a large effect on climate change. The court also dismissed claims of trade libel, intentional interference with prospective and contractual economic relationships, and civil conspiracy as well as claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), finding that allegations of essential elements of these claims were missing from the complaint. The court also dismissed the other defendants from the action and granted the defendants’ motion to strike under California’s “anti-SLAPP” (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) law as to the claims dismissed for failure to state a claim.

The federal district court for the Southern District of Georgia transferred forest-products companies’ lawsuit alleging federal and state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims against Greenpeace International and other organizations (Greenpeace) to the Northern District of California. The forest-products companies asserted that the defendants illegally attacked their forestry practices, including by suggesting that the companies created climate change risks by harvesting the Boreal forest. The Georgia federal court found that the companies’ alleged loss of Georgia customers had not occurred in its district and that a trip by the defendants to the district did not give rise to the plaintiffs’ claims. Because two Greenpeace employees who were integral to the plaintiffs’ forestry campaign were based in San Francisco, the court concluded that that a substantial part of events giving rise to the plaintiffs’ claims occurred in the Northern District of California and that venue was therefore proper there.

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