A Manhattan-based appeals court, for the second time on Tuesday, extinguished an antitrust lawsuit against Chinese exporters of vitamin C, finding that Chinese regulations made it impossible for the firms to comply with U.S. law.

The ruling, from a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, unwound what had been a $147 million damages award against two of the companies accused of price-fixing, in a case that made its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.