Unless you sell/distribute pirated materials, yes. If you download pirated material from a random https mirror, then all they can come for you for is the lost revenue. If you use torrents it gets more difficult since you're seeding the material
As far as I understand that's how the US works too.
Penalties only for distributing is quite different from no penalties at all.
what they said is likely misleading. punitive damages can come substantively in differing forms and guises