The Fundão dam collapse litigation marks a turning point in transnational corporate accountability, as the English courts asserted jurisdiction and applied Brazilian environmental law to hold BHP potentially liable as a parent company. By finding that BHP exercised significant control, oversight and economic involvement in Samarco’s operations, the Court rejected the portrayal of the company as a merely passive investor and pierced the protective logic of corporate separateness by qualifying BHP as a “polluter” subject to strict liability.

The decision establishes a precedent for looking beyond formal corporate structures where serious environmental harm is foreseeable and inadequately managed, thereby lowering both jurisdictional and doctrinal barriers to cross-border litigation. More broadly, it stands as a landmark judgment that signals multinational enterprises may be held accountable in their home forums for environmental and human rights harms arising abroad, reinforcing the need to act with genuine corporate responsibility and robust due diligence in their global operations.