India IT consultancy giant Tata has just heard a giant tsk-tsk from a Wisconsin jury, to the tune of a whopping $940 million in fines for unauthorized access to Epic Systems EHR trade secrets — and it plans to appeal.

The two fines on seven claims, including breach of contract, unfair competition and enrichment, and misappropriation of trade secrets, were for $240 million in compensatory and $700 million in punitive damages, according to The Indian Express.

The Mumbai-based Tata companies slammed with the penalties, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata America International, claimed that they "did not misuse or derive any benefit from downloaded documents from Epic System’s user-web portal," in a statement emphasizing that, in addition, no use was made "of said information for development of its own hospital management system 'Med Mantra’, which was implemented for a large hospital chain in India in 2009."
"TCS plans to defend its position vigorously in appeals to higher courts. TCS appreciates the trial judge's announcement from the bench that he is almost certain he will reduce the damages award," according to India Today.

The huge award was in question even before the federal jury determined it, however. The District Judge William M. Conley had already raised doubts, according to Reuters, noting that the Indian firm had stated that it "appreciates the trial judge's announcement from the bench that he is almost certain he will reduce the damages award."

The lawsuit was filed in 2014. At the heart of the case is that Epic software was being used by Kaiser Permanente, and that institution had hired TCS to help implement the EHR system. A TCS employee then "fraudulently accessed" and downloaded 6,477 documents to which TCS was not entitled, according to court documents.

"Rather than compete lawfully with Epic, TCS has engaged in an apparently elaborate campaign of deception to steal documents, confidential information, trade secrets, and other information and data from Epic, for the purpose of realising technical expertise developed by Epic over years of hard work and investment," the lawsuit stated according to India Today.

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