{"id":116474,"date":"2021-06-15T13:41:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=116474"},"modified":"2021-06-15T13:41:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:41:17","slug":"ikea-fined-1-2-million-for-spying-on-french-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/ikea-fined-1-2-million-for-spying-on-french-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"IKEA fined $1.2 million for spying on French employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Data used in client disputes, workers reps say<\/li>\n<li>Union&#x27;s lawyer says &#x27;symbolism&#x27; of fine important<\/li>\n<li>Firm looking to see if more remedial action needed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A French court on Tuesday ordered IKEA to pay a 1 million euro\u00a0 ($1.2 million) fine for spying on its French staff, after the world&#x27;s biggest furniture retailer was found guilty of improperly gathering and storing data on its employees.<\/p>\n<p>The French branch of Ingka Group, which owns most IKEA stores worldwide, was accused of snooping on its workers and some clients over several years.<\/p>\n<p>The flatpack furniture group, which has recognised there were some improper practices, was accused of breaching employees&#x27; privacy by reviewing records of their bank accounts and sometimes using fake employees to write up reports on staff.<\/p>\n<p>Worker representatives said the information was used to target union leaders in some cases or used to IKEA&#x27;s advantage in disputes with customers, after the firm trawled data on people&#x27;s finances and even what cars they drove. It was also found to have paid for access to police files.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors had been pushing for a 2 million euro fine. Lawyers for France&#x27;s CGT union and several individuals seeking compensation said the final amount was not hefty, but welcomed the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s the symbolism here that matters,&quot; said Solene Debarre, a lawyer representing the CGT.<\/p>\n<p>The company said it was reviewing the court decision to see if further measures were needed, after it took steps to stamp out the surveillance tactics.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;IKEA Retail France has strongly condemned the practices, apologised and implemented a major action plan to prevent this from happening again,&quot; the Ingka group said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>IKEA employs around 10,000 people in France, its third biggest market after Germany and the United States, and has experimented with new formats there, including a store launched in 2019 in the heart of Paris.<\/p>\n<p>It is best known for its vast self-service stores out of town but many shoppers have shifted online, particularly during the pandemic lockdowns when demand for office furniture, food jars and cooking products grew strongly.<\/p>\n<p>The Ingka group&#x27;s operating profit in the year to the end of August 2020 fell, hurt by store closures during the coronavirus crisis, though it has projected a rebound. <\/p>\n<h2>Fines<\/h2>\n<p>The firm&#x27;s former chief executive in France, Jean-Louis Baillot, was found guilty in the case and handed a two-year suspended prison sentence. Judges fined him 50,000 euros for storing personal data.<\/p>\n<p>The allegations centred on the 2009-2012 period, although prosecutors said the spying tactics began in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p>In total 15 people faced accusations in the trial.Two of the accused were found not guilty of all charges against them, including a police officer, and Stefan Vanoverbeke, who ran IKEA in France from 2010 to 2015 and still has a senior position in the group&#x27;s retail operations.<\/p>\n<p>Others were cleared on some charges, such as systematically divulging confidential information, but found guilty of others, including illegally obtaining personal data.<\/p>\n<p>Sanctions ranged from a 5,000 euro fine for a former human resources manager to several suspended prison sentences.<\/p>\n<p>IKEA fired several managers and overhauled its internal policy after the allegations came to light in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>The Swedish firm has long denied setting up a widespread espionage system, and was absolved on Tuesday of systematically violating personal data. IKEA operates through a franchise system. Ingka Group is the main franchisee to brand owner Inter IKEA Group.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/06\/15\/ikea-fined-1point2-million-for-spying-on-french-employees.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data used in client disputes, workers reps say Union&#x27;s lawyer says &#x27;symbolism&#x27; of fine important Firm looking to see if more remedial action needed A [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>IKEA fined $1.2 million for spying on French employees - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/ikea-fined-1-2-million-for-spying-on-french-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IKEA fined $1.2 million for spying on French employees - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Data used in client disputes, workers reps say Union&#x27;s lawyer says &#x27;symbolism&#x27; 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