Sometimes it feels as though specialty chemicals giant 3M—once possibly Earth’s single greatest promoter of fluorine atoms—will be litigating the damage done by its “forever chemicals” more or less forever. After much litigation, 3M agreed to pay $10.3 billion to settle with scores of U.S. municipalities over its toxic per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 2023. It paid the state of New Jersey $450 million in a settlement just last year. And it has been litigating hundreds of cases like this since at least 1999. But now the beleaguered multinational conglomerate will soon be defending itself in the southern hemisphere, where it has been dragged down under by the long arms of the Australian law. On Thursday, the Australian government announced that it is suing 3M for $1.4 billion USD ($2 billion in Australian dollars) over the “substantial costs” of damage done by the PFAS contained in a 3M-sold fire-fighting foam that was used at 28 of the commonwealth nation’s military bases. “This misconduct has contributed to substantial costs for defence and the Australian taxpayer, including over $1bn [Australian, AUD] to date to investigate, remediate and mitigate PFAS contamination at defence estate sites,” Australia’s Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said, per one BBC report.