The jury award follows a landmark summary judgment holding NSO Group liable for its 2019 spyware attack targeting WhatsApp

Davis Polk served as lead trial counsel for Meta Platforms, Inc. and WhatsApp LLC in litigation against NSO Group Technologies Ltd., the Israeli spyware company that developed and licenses Pegasus spyware.  After a six-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Meta and WhatsApp, ordering NSO Group to pay $167,254,000 in punitive damages and the full requested amount of $444,719 in compensatory damages.  Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton had previously issued a decision finding NSO Group liable for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA) and for breaching WhatsApp’s terms of service.

The case marks the first jury verdict against a commercial spyware company in U.S. court, and it is the first U.S. verdict against NSO Group, which in 2021 was added to the Department of Commerce Entity List for activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.  The case is also the largest reported verdict in a civil case brought under either the CFAA or the CDAFA.  NSO Group and its spyware activities have been the subject of extensive media attention, including a segment on 60 Minutes and a recent HBO documentary by Ronan Farrow, Surveilled.

In a complaint filed in October 2019, Meta and WhatsApp alleged that between April and May 2019, NSO Group accessed WhatsApp’s servers without authorization in order to install Pegasus spyware on the mobile devices of more than 1,400 WhatsApp users. Meta and WhatsApp identified NSO Group as the source of the attack, and determined that NSO‘s victims included journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents and others.
In its December 20, 2024, order granting summary judgment, the court concluded that NSO Group was subject to personal jurisdiction in California, that NSO Group exceeded its authorization to access the WhatsApp servers in violation of the CFAA and CDAFA, and that NSO Group violated the WhatsApp terms of service in developing Pegasus. The court also found that NSO Group should face sanctions for failing to produce discovery and disobeying court orders. 

The six-day trial on damages included groundbreaking testimony from NSO Group executives, who admitted that they used WhatsApp to install spyware on the mobile devices of up to tens of thousands of individuals, and continued to use WhatsApp to install spyware even after WhatsApp and Meta filed their complaint.  The jury awarded Meta and WhatsApp the full cost of their employees’ response to the May 2019 attacks.  In awarding punitive damages, the jury found that NSO Group acted with malice, oppression or fraud in violating the CDAFA.

The Davis Polk trial team included partners Greg D. Andres, Antonio J. Perez-Marques and Micah G. Block, counsel Gina Cora and associates Luca Marzorati, Muhammad Sardar, Gersham Johnson, Quentin J. Ullrich, Amelia Birnie, Kaitlin Campanini, Meenu Mathews and Cyerra Haywood. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the New York and Northern California offices.

The Meta legal team, who provided support throughout the case, included Michael Chmelar, Nikki Vo, Tyler Smith, Christen Dubois, Arif Dhilla and Brady Freeman.

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