"Vietnamese victims of 2016 marine disaster have filed a landmark lawsuit against Formosa Plastics Group in Taiwan", 11 Jun 2019

In a landmark move, victims of the 2016 marine disaster that affected the coastal communities in central Vietnam filed a transnational lawsuit against the Taiwanese corporation responsible for the environmental damage, Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), on Jun 11, 2019. If successful, this case could pave the way for new norms related to Taiwanese corporate responsibility for environmental protection in third-party countries.

With the assistance of environmental and human rights organizations in Taiwan, Vietnam, US, France and Canada, the legal representatives of the Vietnamese plaintiffs, a group composed of 7,875 victims of the marine disaster, presented the lawsuit against FPG at the Taipei district court on June 11...

The marine disaster, which took place on 6 April 2016, is seen as the most serious environmental disaster in Vietnamese history. The incident, caused by the discharge of toxic waste into the sea by FPG subsidiary Ha Tinh Steel Corporation, led to the death of massive amounts of fish and marine life in central Vietnam...

FPG accepted responsibility for the disaster on 30 June 2016 and agreed to give 500 million USD in compensation to the Vietnamese government for disaster relief work. However, the Vietnamese authorities have not released any information about the number of victims who have received any compensation. And for those who were compensated, they only received around US$ 2,430 dollars per household — an amount that can only support a person's expenses for one year, based on GDP per capital in Vietnam...