Spyware attack against WhatsApp: NSO Group wants a new negotiation

The Israeli tech company NSO Group Technologies, which was sentenced to a little more than $ 167 million in damages on WhatsApp at the beginning of May, wants the imposed criminal amount to be reduced or the procedure is re-set. Last week, the manufacturer of the “Pegasus” surveillance software submitted a corresponding application to the district court of the United States for the northern district of California in Oakland (Az. 19-CV-07123).

The WhatsApp awarded damages in the amount of $ 167,254,000 exceeds the damage claimed by the trade fair service in the procedure in the amount of $ 444,719 “a little more than 376 times,” said NSO Group in the application. The arbitration saying of the jurors is “in a outrageous manner against the procedural restrictions on the amount of the penalty replacement”. NSO Group described the amount of the attributed compensation as “unconstitutionally exaggerated”; This is “clearly reflected in the consideration of legally inadmissible factors by the jury”. “The ninth Federal Appeal Court has limited ‘compensation to a ratio of 4 to 1 if considerable economic damage has occurred due to a not particularly outrageous behavior,” argues NSO Group.

The arbitration saying is also “illegal because it reflects the inadmissible wish of driving nso out of general hostility to his business activities”. The assigned amount of damages exceeds “the solvency of NSO by far” and reflecting “an inappropriate interest in punishment from NSO”, the application says. The NSO Group had already argued during the court proceedings that it was in a difficult financial situation.

Long -term procedure

The legal dispute has been employing the courts for several years. The WHATSApp trade fair service belonging to the META group accused NSO Group in October 2019 that he had violated various laws when installing the Pegasus spy software. In early 2019, NSO Group is said to have illegally accessed WhatsApp server and thereby enabled the monitoring of around 1,400 people, including journalists and human rights activists. NSO Group argued that it works on behalf of unnecessary foreign governments, and the Pegasus software law enforcement authorities and intelligence services supports the fight against crime and the protection of national security and should help to make terrorists, pedophiles and severe criminals.

In 2020, a judge rejected NSO Group’s application for a form of immunity. The Israeli company made an appeal against this decision. However, the 9th Court of Appeal of the United States, based in San Francisco and already mentioned above, confirmed the decision in 2021. At the beginning of 2023, the judges of the Supreme Court finally rejected NSO Group’s appeal. In this, the company had argued that it was immune to a lawsuit because it acted as an agent for non -identified foreign governments when installing the spy software. In fact, numerous governments have used Pegasus spyware worldwide in recent years.

The case finally landed before the US district court for the northern district of California. At the end of February 2024, the responsible judge decided that NSO Group had to move out the source code of the Pegasus spyware. Shortly before the turn of the year, the court finally gave WhatsApp’s application. At the beginning of May, a jury jury finally spent more than $ 167 million damages to the Messenger of the US group Meta.

After the current application for rejection or reorganization of the procedure by NSO, a WhatsApp spokeswoman explained Compared to the US tech portal Techcrunchthat WhatsApp will pursue the case. “In the past six years, NSO has tried to escape responsibility on every opportunity. This is another expected attempt to claim impunity, in response to a clear sign of the jury of US citizens who decided to punish NSO for his illegal attack on a US company and its users in 2019,” said Margarita Franklin. “We will respond to the court, while we continue to strive for a permanent injunction against NSO to prevent this Spyware company WhatsApp and our users away from ever being targeted.”