Meta’s WhatsApp Wins $168 Million in Damages Over NSO Hack (2)

May 6, 2025, 9:32 PM UTCUpdated: May 6, 2025, 11:38 PM UTC

WhatsApp Inc. won $167.7 million from the Israeli spying software company NSO Group Technologies Ltd. for its illegal use of the messaging platform to deploy Pegasus spyware.

A federal jury on Tuesday returned a punitive damages award of $167.3 million and $444,719 in compensatory damages for the Meta Platforms Inc.-owned company.

The verdict in the US District Court for the Northern District of California comes after a federal judge ruled last December that NSO had violated state and federal anti-hacking laws when the firm attacked 1,400 mobile phones with its Pegasus spyware using WhatsApp servers.

The Tuesday verdict said NSO ...

Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:

See Breaking News in Context

Bloomberg Law provides trusted coverage of current events enhanced with legal analysis.

Already a subscriber?

Log in to keep reading or access research tools and resources.