(Bloomberg) -- The US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Meta Platforms Inc., leaving it to face a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that accuses the company of misleading shareholders about the data-harvesting scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

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Investors claim the company, then known as Facebook, inflated share prices through misleading disclosures about the risk of the scandal leading to the misuse of user data. The shareholders say revelations about the breach eventually contributed to two 2018 price drops that cost the company more than $200 billion in market value.

Meta was seeking reversal of a federal appeals court decision that had let the lawsuit go forward. The Supreme Court agreed to consider the appeal in June and heard arguments on Nov. 6.

The court occasionally drops cases after argument. As is its usual practice, the court provided no explanation, saying only that the case was being “dismissed as improvidently granted.”

The dismissal makes it more likely Meta will face a costly settlement — potentially as large as $2 billion — according to Matthew Schettenhelm, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. A Meta victory at the Supreme Court would have knocked out some though not all of the case against the company.

“The plaintiff’s claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the district court,” Meta said in a statement. “We are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision not to clarify this part of the law.”

The attorney for the investors, Kevin Russell, declined to comment.

The case more broadly had the potential to reset the legal rules governing corporate disclosure. Business groups led by the Chamber of Commerce had urged the court to side with Meta, saying that risk-disclosure allegations have contributed to a wave of meritless securities-fraud suits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission since 2005 has required companies to disclose material factors that would make an investment risky.

The Supreme Court is also considering an appeal by AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp., which is being sued for allegedly misleading shareholders about its reliance on crypto-mining revenue in the run-up to a market crash.