Davis Polk’s trial victory and unanimous jury verdict in favor of Meta and WhatsApp was honored among the Daily Journal’s “Top Verdicts of 2025,” which recognizes California’s top verdicts by dollar, impact, defense victories and appellate reversals. 

The unanimous jury verdict ordered NSO Group to pay $168 million in damages for its 2019 spyware attack targeting WhatsApp, which the court later reduced to $4 million. The judge also later ruled that Meta and WhatsApp were entitled to a permanent injunction, banning NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp again. 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. 

The Davis Polk team, led by White Collar Defense & Investigations practice co-head Greg Andres and partners Tony Perez-Marques and Micah Block, spoke with the Daily Journal about the significance of the ruling and the path to this landmark win. 

Greg notes that “the jury’s verdict and the court’s permanent injunction send a powerful message to NSO and other malicious actors that the consequences for those who target U.S. companies for unlawful purposes will be severe, and that WhatsApp is off-limits to spyware makers.” 

Reflecting on the challenges the team faced, Tony pointed to seeking and achieving discovery, “given NSO Group’s business model of secrecy and concealment.” 

Tony explained that “NSO argued that much of the discovery we were seeking, including the code for Pegasus, constituted state secrets that would be illegal for them to produce in the United States. Litigating and winning that dispute, pursuant to the Ninth Circuit’s Richmark standard, opened up discovery, including depositions of NSO executives conducted in London.”

Another hurdle was ensuring that NSO’s extremely sophisticated spyware attacks were explained to the jurors so they could understand the scope and severity of NSO’s conduct. Micah explained how the team relied on testimony from Meta and WhatsApp’s engineers, who explained their efforts to identify and respond to NSO’s attacks. 

“Top Verdicts 2025,” Daily Journal, February 25, 2026  

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