A Canadian airlines suit that involved one carrier hiring private investigators to dress as garbage collectors to retrieve documents has been settled.
WestJet Airlines agreed to pay $14 million in American dollars to settle accusations it spied on its bigger rival, Air Canada.
The settlement brought to an end two years of litigation for Canada’s biggest carriers.
Two years ago, Air Canada sued WestJet for logging on more than 240,000 times to an internal Web site that had passenger load data.
WestJet, in turn, sued Air Canada for trying to retrieve documents from the garbage of a former executive, among other allegations.
A joint statement from the airlines said WestJet’s conduct was “both unethical and unacceptable.”
Report by David Wilkening
