Ikea fined $1.3 million over spying campaign
VERSAILLES: A French court ordered home furnishings giant Ikea to pay some $1.3 million) in fines and damages Tuesday over a campaign to spy on union representatives, employees and some unhappy customers in France.
Two former Ikea France executives were convicted and fined over the scheme and given suspended prison sentences. Among the other 13 defendants in the high-profile trial, some were acquitted and others given suspended sentences.
Adel Amara, a former Ikea employee who helped expose the wrongdoing, called the ruling “a big step in defense of the citizen .... It makes me glad that there is justice in France.”
The panel of judges at the Versailles court found that between 2009 and 2012, Ikea’s French
subsidiary used espionage to sift out trouble-makers in the employee ranks and to profile squabbling customers.
Ikea France was convicted of receiving personal data obtained through fraudulent means in a habitual way, and ordered to pay 1 million euros in fines and about
100,000 euros ($121,225) in damages.
Trade unions accused Ikea France of collecting personal data by fraudulent means, notably via illegally obtained police files, and illicitly disclosing personal information. Lawyers for Ikea France denied that the company had any strategy of “generalized espionage.”
A lawyer for the unions, Solene Debarre, expressed hope that the verdict would “make some companies tremble.”
“One million euros isn’t much for Ikea, but it’s a symbol,” Debarre said.
The company, which said it cooperated in the investigation, had faced a potential financial penalty of up to $4.5 million. Prosecutor Pamela Tabardel asked the court to hand “an exemplary sentence and a strong message to all firms.”
The executive who was in charge of risk management at the time of the spying acknowledged to French judges that 530,000 to 630,000 euros a year were earmarked for such investigations. He said his department was responsible for handling the operation on orders from former Ikea France CEO Jean-Louis Baillot.