BP and the Department of Justice agreed to a record-setting $4.525 billion in fines and other payments.[23][24][25] As of 2018, cleanup costs, charges and penalties had cost the company more than $65 billion.[26][27]
In September 2014, a United States District Court judge ruled that BP was primarily responsible for the oil spill because of its gross negligence and reckless conduct.[28] In April 2016, BP agreed to pay $20.8 billion in fines, the largest environmental damage settlement in United States history.[29]BP also agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that BP would be temporarily banned from new contracts with the United States government.