A ‘System of Espionage’ Reigned at Ikea, a French Prosecutor Charges

In a case riveting national attention, Ikea France is charged with violating privacy rights by surveilling unions, employees and customers.

VERSAILLES, France — The USB stick mysteriously appeared from an unidentified deliveryman. It held an explosive trove: a cache of startling emails detailing an intricate effort by Ikea executives in France to dig up information on employees, job applicants and even customers. “Tell me if these people are known to the police,” read one executive’s message to a private investigator, seeking illicit background checks on hundreds of Ikea job applicants. “A model worker has become a radical employee representative overnight,” read another. “We need to find out why.”