France: fine of one million euros to a company …

This Tuesday the French subsidiary of the furniture multinational, Ikea, and one of its former executive directors they were punished with a fine of more than one million Euros and a suspended prison sentence of two years, respectively, for spy on hundreds of employees for several years.

The Versailles Criminal Court found guilty of theft of personal data by fraudulent means. The prosecutor, who had accused them of “massive espionage”, had requested harsher sentences such as a fine of two million euros for the label, as well as the penalty of closed prison for the former director Jean-Louis Baillot.

The investigation began in 2012, after the case came to light in the press. According to the prosecutor’s office, there was a “monitoring system” of employees and customers. At that time, Ikea France and its leaders were accused of having illegally investigated criminal records, their way of life or their inheritance through a “business consulting” company Eirpace, which allegedly extracted this confidential data. police files.

At the heart of this “system” was Jean-François Paris, former security employee of Ikea France from 2002 to 2012, who acknowledged that there were “massive checks” of employees. He was sentenced to 18 months suspended prison sentence and a 10,000 euro fine.

Baillot, who ran Ikea France between 1996 and 2002, was also fined 50,000 euros after being found guilty of “Obtain personal data by fraudulent means”. He has denied throughout the trial – two weeks in March – ordering surveillance of the employees. He was acquitted of certain other charges such as breach of professional secrecy. His lawyer, François Saint-Pierre, said Baillot was “shocked” by the conviction and was considering appealing.

Adel Amara, a union representative, one of the 120 plaintiffs in total, said he was “satisfied” with the outcome of the trial, but described the sanctions as “rather lenient”.