In Could, a jury dominated that spyware and adware maker NSO Group should pay $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for a 2019 hacking marketing campaign that focused greater than 1,400 individuals.
Calling the damages ruling “outrageous,” “blatantly illegal,” and “unconstitutionally extreme,” NSO Group now needs the choose overseeing the case to scale back the quantity, or order a brand new trial.
On Thursday, the corporate filed a movement for a brand new trial or a “remittitur,” which is a process that permits a courtroom to scale back an extreme verdict.
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The submitting was first reported by authorized information shops Law360 and MLex.
Within the courtroom submitting, NSO Group’s attorneys stated that the “outrageous punitive award exceeds the utmost lawful punitive damages award on this case by many orders of magnitude.” The attorneys argued that the quantity ordered in punitive damages — the $167 million — violates limits that say the jury mustn’t award damages “larger than 4 instances compensatory damages,” which have been $444,719 on this case.
The attorneys additionally argued that the jury’s award is “illegal as a result of it displays the improper want to bankrupt NSO out of normal hostility towards its enterprise actions aside from the restricted conduct for which punitive damages could possibly be awarded on this case.”
WhatsApp spokesperson Margarita Franklin informed TechCrunch in a press release that WhatsApp will maintain combating the case.
“For the previous six years, NSO has tried to keep away from accountability at each flip. That is one other anticipated try to assert impunity, in response to a robust message from the jury of U.S. residents deciding to punish NSO for its 2019 unlawful assault towards an American firm and its customers,” stated Franklin. “We’ll reply to the courtroom as we proceed to pursue a everlasting injunction towards NSO to stop this spyware and adware agency from focusing on WhatsApp and our customers ever once more.”
NSO Group additionally stated in its courtroom submitting that the quantity awarded in damages “grossly exceeds NSO’s potential to pay,” and “displays an improper want to punish NSO.”
In the course of the trial, NSO Group already argued that it’s in dire straits financially.
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