BP must face investors' US$2.5b spill-loss claims, rules court

Houston

BP plc must face institutional investors' claims for more than US$2.5 billion in market losses caused by the plunge in share prices after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a federal appeals court ruled.

The US Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday upheld a Houston trial judge's decision that investors can sue as a group, or class, for losses on shares they bought during the weeks immediately after the start of the worst offshore spill in US history, before the magnitude of the disaster was known.