A US judge rejected BP’s argument that a multibillion-dollar settlement over the company’s massive 2010 Gulf oil spill should not compensate businesses if they cannot directly trace their losses to the spill.

A US federal appeals court has revived BP’s claims that a judge’s interpretation of a settlement over its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses.

BP has sued to block what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses over the deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill.