QUITO, Ecuador (AP) Ecuador's highest court has upheld a landmark judgment against Chevron Corp. for oil contamination in the Amazon, but cut the penalty in half, to $8.8 billion.
The sum equals the original judgment against the oil multinational awarded by a local judge in February 2011.
That amount was doubled a year later after Chevron refused to publicly apologize for the contamination, which occurred between 1972 and 1990 under a Texaco-led consortium.
Chevron later bought Texaco.
The Civil and Mercantile chamber of The National Court of Justice said in Tuesday's ruling that nothing in Ecuadorean law justifies doubling a civil award if an apology is not issued by a party deemed culpable in such a case.