14 DAY TRIAL // Much to its dismay, oil and gas giant BP has been ordered to offer financial compensation to companies and individuals that were affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, even if the latter fail to produce evidence of their loses.
BP's battle against several claimants began last year, after the signing of a settlement between the company, and businesses and people affected by the 200 million gallons (750 million liters) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thus, it was in June 2013 when BP launched an aggressive advertising campaign whose purpose the company claimed was to let people know about how several business and even ordinary folks were trying to get more money than they were entitled to as compensation for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
By the looks of it, this campaign was brought about by BP's learning that, instead of having to pay $7.8 billion (€5.67 billion) as compensation, as it had originally estimated, it would actually have to cough up some $9.2 billion (€6.69 billion).
Hence, the company challenged the 2012 settlement in court, and argued that some people and businesses were trying to take advantage of the situation and seeking to obtain compensations that they were not entitled to.
“Whatever you think about BP, we can all agree that it’s wrong for anyone to take money they don’t deserve,” the oil and gas giant wrote in an ad in three of the US' largest and most popular newspapers.
“And it’s unfair to anyone in the Gulf – commercial fishermen, restaurant and hotel owners, and all the other hard-working people who’ve filed legitimate claims for real losses,” it further explained.
As part of this advertising campaign, the company attempted to twist companies and people's arm into bringing evidence of how the 2010 oil spill affected them. Unfortunately, things did not exactly go according to plan.
Thus, media reports say that the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has decided 2-1 that the company must stick to the 2012 settlement and pay all claimants, even if it thinks that their losses are fictitious.
“The settlement agreement does not require a claimant to submit evidence that the claim arose as a result of the oil spill,” Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick explained, as cited by Think Progress.
Otherwise put, it was decided that BP cannot go ahead and change a settlement simply because its terms suddenly do not agree with it as much as it was initially expected.
For the time being, it is not clear whether the company plans to challenge the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision sometime in the not so distant future.