MV X-Press Pearl disaster: Let there be justice to the nature

The rejection to pay the said compensation in fact sets a dangerous precedent for countries such as Sri Lanka which are at the receiving end of such maritime disasters

In July 2025, the Sri Lanka Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling where it ordered the owners of MV X-press Pearl to pay USD 1 billion as compensation based on the Polluter Pays Principle for the devastating environmental and economic  damage caused by the ship’s sinking off the island’s western coast in 2021. The decision delivered in a detailed 361-page judgement by a five-judge bench led by former Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, is hailed as a milestone in holding corporate polluters accountable through domestic courts.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the Polluter Pays Principle is not a principle of compensation for damage caused by pollution. Nor does it mean that the polluter should merely pay the cost of measures to prevent pollution. The Polluter Pays Principle means that the polluter should be charged with the cost of whatever pollution prevention and control measures are determined by the public authorities, whether preventive measures, restoration, or a combination of both. 
The X-Press Pearl, a Singapore-flagged container ship, caught fire in May 2021 and sank off Colombo after burning for nearly two weeks. Onboard were 1,486 containers, including hazardous chemicals and 78 metric tons of plastic nurdles — small resin pellets used in plastic manufacturing. An estimated 70-75 billion nurdles were released into Sri Lankan waters, blanketing the coastline and causing what experts have described as the world’s worst marine plastic spill.
As per the judgement,  the deadline for  settling the first installment was September 23 (Tuesday),  but in an interview with AFP, X-Press Feeders chief executive Shmuel Yoskovitz said he believed paying would have wide-ranging implications on global shipping and “set a dangerous precedent”.
Yoskovitz said that they will not be paying the compensation because maritime trade is based on the limitation of liability. According to him, this judgement undermines this limitation of liability. He further said that any payment towards the judgment could set a dangerous precedent for how maritime incidents will be resolved in future. 
According to foreign media reports, X-Press Feeders claims that it has already contributed over USD 170 million through its insurer for “wreck removal, environmental remediation and compensation claims” in cooperation with Sri Lankan authorities. The company expressed concern that compensation funds already provided have not reached affected communities, stating they are “deeply disappointed to learn from local reports of Sri Lankan parliament proceedings that compensation payments have not yet reached many affected communities due to delays within Sri Lanka.”
Beyond financial considerations, X-Press Feeders highlighted humanitarian concerns regarding the vessel’s Master, who “has been prevented from returning home for more than four years due to a court-ordered travel ban, causing significant and prolonged distress to him and his family.”
In a statement posted on X, the United Nations Office in Sri Lanka said that the company’s refusal to honour the ruling is ‘deeply concerning’, while urging the shipping company to review the scale of damages to people, coasts and marine life, and to uphold justice to the communities and the ecosystem. 
The Supreme Court held that the environmental damage and losses to Sri Lanka’s marine and coastal ecosystems were directly caused by the pollution from MV X-Press Pearl. It further declared that the ship’s Master, Owner, Operators and its Sri Lankan Agent are jointly and severally responsible for the disaster. The Supreme Court ruled that the petitioners in the MV X-Press Pearl case are entitled to recover the full costs of litigation from the Attorney General. These costs include counsel fees, payments to instructing attorneys, and documentation expenses related to the applications they filed and pursued in court. The Court further directed that, upon making these payments, the Attorney General may seek reimbursement from the MV X-Press Pearl Compensation Commission.
The rejection to pay the said compensation in fact sets a dangerous precedent for countries such as Sri Lanka which are at the receiving end of such maritime disasters. Sri Lankan shores continue to be polluted with plastic pellets (nurdles) due to two recent shipwrecks that happened off the coasts of Southern India, further highlighting the country’s vulnerability towards marine pollution.

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