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 folks.
Calling the damages ruling “outrageous,” “blatantly illegal,” and “unconstitutionally extreme,” NSO Group now desires the choose overseeing the case to cut 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 enables a courtroom to cut 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 shouldn’t award damages “larger than 4 occasions 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 common hostility towards its enterprise actions aside from the restricted conduct for which punitive damages may very well be awarded on this case.”
WhatsApp spokesperson Margarita Franklin instructed TechCrunch in an announcement that WhatsApp will hold 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 in opposition to an American firm and its customers,” stated Franklin. “We’ll reply to the courtroom as we proceed to pursue a everlasting injunction in opposition to NSO to stop this spyware and adware agency from concentrating 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 capability 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.