Court clash between Meta and NSO ends in $168m defeat for spyware firm

Damages awarded after earlier ruling found NSO unlawfully exploited a bug in WhatsApp to spy on users

Meta Platforms won a $168m verdict against the Israeli surveillance firm NSO, the company said on Tuesday, capping a six-year arm-wrestling match between the US's biggest social-networking platform and the world's best-known spyware company.

Meta had already won after a December ruling found that NSO had unlawfully exploited a bug in its messaging service WhatsApp to plant spy software on its users' phones. On Tuesday, a jury in California ruled that NSO owed Meta $444,719 in compensatory damages - and $167.3m in punitive damages, Meta said.