The United States Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal from India-based Tata Consultancy Services seeking to overturn a $168 million damages award granted to DXC Technology. The decision stems from allegations that Tata misappropriated proprietary trade secrets relating to life-insurance software.

The compensation comprised $56 million in actual damages and $112 million in punitive damages awarded to DXC, which is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia. Tata had contested the decision, claiming the financial penalties lacked legal foundation under American trade secret law and were unjustifiably excessive.

The underlying case originated with DXC's predecessor, Computer Sciences Corp, which had licensed software to insurance firm Transamerica during the 1990s. When DXC filed suit in Dallas federal court in 2019, it alleged that Tata had recruited approximately 2,200 former Transamerica employees and leveraged their familiarity with DXC's proprietary systems to develop a rival life-insurance product. Tata maintained it had acted lawfully, asserting the information was not confidential and had been accessed legitimately.

A Dallas jury rendered a non-binding advisory verdict in 2023 recommending $210 million in damages for willful misappropriation of trade secrets. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr subsequently reduced this to $168 million in 2024. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, upheld the lower court's decision in 2025.

Tata's Supreme Court petition contended that DXC should not have recovered unjust enrichment damages without establishing actual financial harm. The company also challenged the proportionality of the punitive component. DXC countered that the appellate court had correctly applied existing legal standards and that the Supreme Court review was unnecessary.