Thread by @TNInstitute

In the midst of the #COVID19 crisis, lawyers urge corporations to defend their profits & challenge governments’ emergency measures in #ISDS corporate courts. Our new report with @corporateeurope reveals their shocking million $ litigation scenarios. Here are 6 of them👇🏻
#stopISDS

🚰 Bolivia & El Salvador took steps to ensure poor and #COVID19 sick households have access to clean water for handwashing. But #ISDS lawyers argue that foreign utility investors could challenge such measures because they ‘eliminated their revenue streams’.

#GlobalCall4Water

🏥 To treat #COVID19 patients for free, Spain & Ireland have temporarily gained public control of private hospitals. Under #ISDS investors could claim millions in damages for such actions - even if governments already paid cost-covering compensation to the private hospital owners

💉 The fate of millions rests on affordable medicines, vaccines & tests for #COVID19. But corporate lawyers tell their clients that they could sue governments under #ISDS if they force producers to sell drugs at a low price or bypass pharmaceutical patents.

#PeoplesVaccine

💡As whole households fall ill with #COVID19 and are stripped of income, politicians in France & the UK are considering relief for the payment of rent & bills. But corporate lawyers argue that could lead to multi million $ #ISDS lawsuits by creditors for ‘causing loss of income’.

💵 Corporate lawyers suggest banks could sue governments that restructure debt or put in place capital controls to deal with the #COVID19 economic crisis. Like in Argentina, which was hit by 44 #ISDS lawsuits over emergency measures it took to fight its 2001 crisis...

💸Denmark, Poland &France have banned companies registered in tax havens from accessing #COVID19 aid. As corporate lawyers are encouraging their clients to challenge ‘discriminatory’ tax benefits in the context of the crisis, we could soon see #ISDS challenges against #taxjustice

Read more about how corporations are preparing to sue states over pandemic measures in our latest report 'Cashing on the Pandemic': longreads.tni.org/cashing-in-on-…

#StopISDS