NSO Group asks decide for brand new trial, calling $167 million in damages ‘outrageous’
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 decide 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 enables a courtroom to scale back an extreme verdict.
Contact Us
Do you may have extra details about NSO Group, or different spyware and adware corporations? From a non-work gadget and community, you may contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Sign at +1 917 257 1382, or by way of Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or e mail.
The submitting was first reported by authorized information retailers Law360 and MLex.
Within the courtroom submitting, NSO Group’s legal professionals stated that the “outrageous punitive award exceeds the utmost lawful punitive damages award on this case by many orders of magnitude.” The legal professionals 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 legal professionals 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 advised TechCrunch in an announcement that WhatsApp will preserve 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 say impunity, in response to a powerful 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 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 skill to pay,” and “displays an improper want to punish NSO.”
Through the trial, NSO Group already argued that it’s in dire straits financially.