Ikea Fined $1.3 Million Over Spying

A French court ordered home furnishings giant Ikea to pay some 1.1 million euros ($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.” more  previous stories

IKEA France Accused of Spying on Employees – Call for Prison Sentence

In an ongoing court case, a prosecutor has demanded IKEA France be fined some €2 million - and for a prison sentence for a former CEO - with the company accused of spying on hundreds of employees.

After five days of the sometimes stormy trial, the Versailles prosecutor's office demanded an “exemplary” sentence be passed down, to send a “strong message” to “all commercial companies”."

The issue at stake in this trial is "the protection of our private lives in the face of a threat, that of mass surveillance", prosecutor Paméla Tabardel told the court.

Fifteen defendants took the stand during the case, including former Ikea France executives, shop managers, but also police officers and the head of a private investigation company. more

Assembling an Ikea Spy Case

Ikea and some of its former executives were ordered to face trial in France over accusations they conspired with police officers to spy on staff.

An Ikea unit in France was accused of collecting information on employees and people applying to work for the furniture giant, according to an indictment dated April 30.

In exchange for a fee, police officers provided confidential information to former Ikea executives on past convictions.

This was in turn used to dismiss staff or turn down applications.

Ikea France said it has “always firmly disapproved” of such practices. more

Ikea Spying Trial Recommended by French Prosecutors

French prosecutors are recommending that Ikea France and 15 people, including police officials, be put on trial on charges of spying on employees and customers.

Three former senior Ikea executives including two ex-chief executive officers (CEOs) are among those charged after an investigation that dates back to 2012. more

Business Espionage - IKEA Snooping Investigation Continues

French police are questioning top executives of the Swedish furniture chain IKEA after allegations that the company illegally used police files to spy on staff and customers.

The arrests of the chief executive officer of IKEA France, Stefan Vanoverbeke, his predecessor, and the chief financial officer, come after more than a year and a half of investigations.

Police searched the company’s head office outside Paris 11 days ago. (more)

IKEA Store Union's Covert Video Allowed

Canada - Two different panels of the BC Labor Relations Board have made findings in favor of a union’s covert video surveillance at the IKEA store in Richmond, BC. The store has operated behind a picket line since May 13.

With over 300 unionized employees on the outside looking in, and only 27 who have decided to cross the picket line, most store operations have continued. The kids’ ballroom is closed, and the 600 seat cafeteria isn’t serving up Swedish meatballs (or anything else), but otherwise the store is open and sales are being made. That has made the union suspicious that IKEA is getting work done in violation of the law against using replacement workers: - section 68 of the Labor Relations Code.

The union hired private investigators to covertly videotape activity inside the store. It then sought to rely on still pictures taken from the video of certain individuals alleged to be working in violation of section 68.

Both panels rejected IKEA’s argument that the covert video surveillance was in violation of the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection Act (“PIPA“) and therefore should not be admitted into evidence. The panels, deciding the cases before them independently, reached similar conclusions for similar reasons. (more)

IKEA Apologizes to Workers for Spying

 The management of IKEA in France, where workers have sued the company for allegedly spying on employees, admitted that activities contravening its ethical standards had taken place and pledged to put a stop to them. (more)

IKEA Spy Inquiry

A French union on Thursday lodged a formal legal complaint against Swedish furniture giant IKEA accusing it of illegally spying on staff and customers, legal sources said. (more)

In the latest twist in a damaging ‘spying’ scandal, Swedish furniture giant IKEA was on Thursday accused of “harassing” its employees after media reports emerged Wednesday that the company had illegally obtained police files on French workers, clients and union leaders.
The latest allegations centre on a former employee who told Europe 1 radio that she had been asked to profile her colleagues and to keep the information on a USB key and to avoid leaving it on company computers “for security reasons”. (more)

On Chinese Espionage

Denny Hatch's summary of the situation is the best we've read so far.

Chinese Theft of Intellectual Property
"China is notorious for stealing the designs and manufacturing hundreds of patented and copyright products and selling them all over the world, including in this country. Among them: Callaway Big Bertha golf clubs, Ikea furniture, Chivas Regal and Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskey, Italian and French wine, luggage, designer clothes, Honda motorcycles, Sony PlayStation games, Cisco Systems router interface cards, even Mitsubishi elevators!

Target stores here have been accused of selling bogus Coach bags and two weeks ago, Wal-Mart settled with Fendi for selling counterfeit handbags for up to $525 each.
What’s more, these thieves get off lightly. In March 2005, a Chinese factory was raided and 32,980 counterfeit Zippo lighters were discovered. The factory manager, Zheng Shengfen, was taken to court and the judge fined him $12,500 with no jail sentence.

Quite simply, if you create any kind of desirable product here or abroad, expect to be ripped off by the Chinese.