The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by India-based Tata Consultancy Services seeking to overturn a $168 million judgment awarded to DXC Technology in a trade secrets case. The decision means the substantial damages award will stand, marking a significant loss for Tata in the long-running dispute over proprietary life-insurance software.
Tata had challenged the damages determination after lower courts upheld the penalty, which comprised $56 million in compensatory damages and $112 million in punitive damages levied by Ashburn, Virginia-headquartered DXC. The company argued that the combined award could not be justified under US law governing trade secret protection.
The dispute originated with DXC's predecessor, Computer Sciences Corp, which had licensed its insurance software to Transamerica during the 1990s. DXC's 2019 lawsuit, brought in Dallas federal court, alleged that Tata recruited approximately 2,200 Transamerica employees and leveraged their familiarity with the proprietary software and confidential processes to develop a rival life-insurance platform. Tata refuted these claims, contending that the information was not proprietary and that access to the software was lawful.
A jury in 2023 delivered an advisory ruling recommending $210 million in damages for willful misappropriation of trade secrets. US District Judge Brantley Starr subsequently reduced this figure to $168 million in 2024, a decision upheld by the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2025.
In its Supreme Court filing, Tata contended that DXC's unjust enrichment damages were improper without demonstrating actual financial harm, and that the punitive component was unreasonably high. The company specifically challenged whether damages calculated solely on unjust enrichment principles complied with federal trade secret law. DXC responded that the appellate court's application of established legal precedents did not warrant Supreme Court intervention.
