Whether the Third Circuit will send to arbitration in London or keep in Pittsburgh federal court a case against a British businessman alleged to have conspired with Alcoa to inflate the cost of raw materials appears likely to come down to the question of prejudice.

The federal appeals court Tuesday was reviewing a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to continue the litigation in Pittsburgh.

Aluminium Bahrain, the Bahraini company that brought the suit and is usually referred to as Alba, filed suit in 2008 alleging Alcoa had conspired with Victor Dahdaleh, a citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom who owned a company called Alumet Ltd., and used its Australian subsidiary to overcharge Alba for the raw material used to make aluminum, called alumina, for decades.