SAS must pay millions in damages

The Norwegian High Court has ruled that SAS must pay rival airline Norwegian NOK 175 million in compensation for industrial espionage, thereby rejecting an appeal by SAS over a sentence by a lower court.

In March a lower court ordred SAS to pay Norwegian for both damages and court costs for having misused proprietary information that it had gleaned from Norwegian’s booking system.

- I am pleased that we may now finally put this behind us, after Norwegian has won in three different courts, says Norwegian CEO Bjørn Kjos. - It shows that the court system is functioning and that unethical behaviour over time will have economic consquenses, he said. 

- We are disappointed over it, but we have taken note of the ruling, says SAS Norway's information director, Knut Morten Johansen.

(NRK/Aftenposten)