The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Tata Consultancy Services' challenge to a $168 million damages judgement handed down by DXC Technology. The India-based IT firm had sought to overturn the award, which stemmed from allegations that it unlawfully obtained trade secrets related to life-insurance software.

DXC's predecessor Computer Sciences Corp had licensed the software to insurance company Transamerica during the 1990s. In 2019, DXC filed suit in Dallas federal court, alleging that Tata recruited approximately 2,200 Transamerica employees and leveraged their familiarity with the proprietary technology to develop a competing platform. Tata contested these claims, contending that the information in question was not proprietary and that it had legally accessed the software.

A Dallas jury rendered a non-binding verdict in 2023 recommending $210 million in damages. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr subsequently reduced this amount to $168 million in 2024, comprising $56 million in compensatory damages and $112 million in punitive damages. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, upheld the decision in 2025.

Tata's Supreme Court petition contended that awarding unjust enrichment damages without evidence of actual losses to DXC violated U.S. trade secrets law. The firm also maintained that the punitive component was disproportionate. Under relevant federal statutes, damages for trade secret misappropriation may encompass both an injured party's losses and the wrongdoer's financial gains from the wrongdoing.

DXC responded that the appellate court's application of established legal principles required no additional scrutiny, effectively defending the lower courts' rulings.