The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal from Tata Consultancy Services seeking to overturn a $168 million award handed down in favour of DXC Technology. The case centred on allegations that Tata had misappropriated trade secrets related to life-insurance software developed by DXC's predecessor, Computer Sciences Corp.
According to DXC's lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court in 2019, Tata hired approximately 2,200 workers from insurance company Transamerica and leveraged their knowledge of CSC's proprietary software to develop a competing platform. The Ashburn, Virginia-based firm maintained that this amounted to deliberate theft of confidential information. Tata contested these claims, asserting that the information in question was not confidential and that its access to the software had been entirely lawful.
A jury verdict in 2023 recommended damages of $210 million, which US District Judge Brantley Starr subsequently reduced to $168 million, comprising $56 million in compensatory damages and $112 million in punitive damages. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this determination in 2025, prompting Tata's final appeal to the nation's highest court.
Tata's petition to the Supreme Court argued that DXC should not have obtained unjust enrichment damages without demonstrating actual losses, and that the punitive component of the award was disproportionate. Under US trade secrets law, courts may award damages reflecting either the plaintiff's losses from the misappropriation or the defendant's gains from it. The $168 million award to DXC was grounded entirely in unjust enrichment.
DXC responded to Tata's petition by contending that the appeals court had properly applied established legal precedent and that no further judicial review was warranted. The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case leaves the lower court decisions in place.
