by RICHARD SMALLTEACHER
Ikea store in France. PHOTO/tom.arthur
Sûreté International – a private detective agency – was allegedly hired by Ikea France to spy on prospective and existing employees, activists from the union Force Ouvrière and even disgruntled customers.
A dozen Ikea employees have been arrested over the allegations so far including Stefan Vanoverbeke and Jean-Louis Baillo, the last two CEOs of Ikea France together with Dariusz Rychert, the chief financial officer. A number of these individuals have since been fired by Ikea.
Ikea, a Swedish company that is based in Delft, Netherlands, sells €23.5 billion ($30 billion) worth of cheap household goods every year from easy to assemble furniture to entire kitchens via its 300 stores around the world.
The news of the spying first broke early last year when Rue89, an investigative website, and Le Canard Enchainé, a French satirical magazine, published emails between Yann Messian, the CEO of Sûreté International, and Jean-François Paris, the director of Ikea France’s risk management division which indicated that company was paying €80 ($101) and up each for investigations into individuals. Ikea is alleged to have paid at least €475,000 ($617,500) for such services.
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