A Chinese environmental group has won a landmark public interest lawsuit against a glass manufacturer, with the firm fined more than $3 million for excessive pollution, a court said.

The Jinghua Group Zhenhua Decoration Glass Limited Company, based in Dezhou in the eastern province of Shandong, was ordered to pay nearly 22 million yuan ($3.3 million) for its surplus emission of pollutants and told to make a public apology, the city's Intermediate People's Court said on a verified social media account.

The suit, filed by the government-affiliated All-China Environment Federation (ACEF) in March of last year, was the first of its kind since a new Chinese environmental protection law came into force at the start of 2015, making it easier for unofficial groups to mount legal actions on public interest grounds...