A New York appeals court ruled Thursday that Fox Corporation must face Smartmatic’s mammoth defamation lawsuit over the airing of 2020 election lies on Fox News, dealing a blow to the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media giant.

The complaint, which arose out of Fox News’s promotion of vote-rigging conspiracy theories after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, is on track to proceed to trial.

In 2023, Fox settled a similar lawsuit filed by another election systems company, Dominion Voting Systems, for $787.5 million. Before the settlement, Fox had sought to exclude Rupert Murdoch from testifying in person at a trial, but the Delaware judge rejected that request.