In Might, a jury ruled that spyware maker NSO Group must 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 desires the decide overseeing the case to scale back the quantity, or order a brand new trial.
On Thursday, the corporate filed a motion for a 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 retailers Law360 and MLex.
Within the courtroom submitting, NSO Group’s attorneys mentioned 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 shouldn’t award damages “higher than 4 occasions compensatory damages,” which had 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 need to bankrupt NSO out of common hostility towards its enterprise actions aside from the restricted conduct for which punitive damages might be awarded on this case.”
WhatsApp spokesperson Margarita Franklin informed TechCrunch in an announcement that WhatsApp will maintain preventing 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 say 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,” mentioned Franklin. “We’ll reply to the courtroom as we proceed to pursue a everlasting injunction towards NSO to forestall this spyware agency from focusing on WhatsApp and our customers ever once more.”
NSO Group additionally mentioned in its courtroom submitting that the quantity awarded in damages “grossly exceeds NSO’s potential to pay,” and “displays an improper need to punish NSO.”
Throughout the trial, NSO Group already argued that it is in dire straits financially.