TCS's fine in the Epic Systems case has been halved to $140 million

5 Jul 2022 , 10:13 AM

On July 4, Tata Consultancy Services said that the $140 million punitive damages assessed against the corporation in the EPIC Systems Corporation case in the US had been reduced.

TCS stated in a stock exchange statement that the Western District of Wisconsin US District Court "issued an order decreasing the jury verdict of punitive damages to $140 million and directed the Clerk of the Court to publish an amended judgment accordingly."

In 2014, Epic System launched a trade secret lawsuit against TCS and Tata America International Corp, alleging that the Tata group companies had stolen its intellectual property in order to create their own product. TCS, who had been recruited to deploy healthcare software, was accused by Epic of stealing 6,000 files while posing as a staff person rather than a consultant and using a fake ID.

A jury convicted TCS guilty in 2016 and gave Epic Systems $940 million in damages. The Wisconsin court reduced the compensatory and punitive damages to $420 million a year later, in October 2017 – $280 million in punitive penalties and $140 million in compensatory damages.

The trial court was instructed to revaluate the punitive damages when TCS filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, Chicago. The US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin has now lowered this punitive penalty to $140 million.

"TCS has been told by counsel that it has compelling evidence supporting its position before the Appeal Court and that the Order regarding punitive damages is not supported by the facts that TCS submitted before the Trial Court. According to information provided to us, the Order and the Judgment (when rendered) may be appealed to the 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals in Chicago, TCS stated in the filing.

It said that it had not "misused or derived any profit from EPIC's records" and that it would defend this claim in front of the appeals court.