When chemicals companies Solvay and EVC decided to sue us in 1997, they were following in a long corporate tradition of using money and the courts to silence critics. British Nuclear Fuels have been doing it for years, Exxon(Esso) sets lawyers on anyone daring to claim it is helping fry the planet and Dow Chemical seems to enjoy picking on penniless protestors.

Solvay and EVC were suing over our campaign to prevent poisonous PVC plastic being used in children's toys. Many toy manufactures removed PVC from their products and subsequently PVC was banned from toys in most of Europe. However the industry was obviously unwilling to accept that they had lost the argument. In Italy the two companies sued us for damage to their image, reputation and for illegal claims. They also maintained "production of PVC and PVC products do not harm the environment".

However the judge threw out all claims of the industry and ordered the companies to pay the legal costs. Maybe next time the companies might listen a little better to the voices of environmental concern? We are not holding our breath though. We will continue to make sure irresponsible corporations can not hide their corporate crimes.

More Info:

Read the full story: Vittoria di Greenpeace: nessun risarcimento di 600 miliardi a EVC e Solvay per campagna PVC.

The dangers of PVC - the poison plastic.

Find PVC materials for your home.