Bjorn Kjos, Norwegian’s chief executive, was ‘very pleased’ with the ruling which he said is ‘compensation for industrial espionage’.
The damages concern losses that Norwegian claimed it incurred between 2002 and 2004 when SAS subsidiary Braathens improperly used information regarding Norwegian via the Amadeus booking system.
The SAS Group also received an email from a travel agency employee allegedly containing business secrets.
SAS Group appealed against an earlier ruling, claiming that Norwegian had not suffered any financial losses as a result of these events. Norwegian also appealed and claimed higher damages than the awarded sum.
The Court of Appeal in Oslo ruled this week that SAS Group shall pay damages totalling 160m Norwegian krone (£18.6m) plus legal costs – the original ruling was for damages of NOK 132m (£15m).
SAS said this will have a negative effect on results and liquidity of approximately 200m Swedish krona (£19m).
Mats Jansson, SAS president and chief executive, said: ‘We are disappointed by the ruling of the Court of Appeal.
‘We had hoped that this matter had been resolved by this ruling, however, we note that it was not unanimous and we will now examine the ruling further to evaluate whether it should be appealed.’
However, Kjos said the fact that the compensation was increased is an important signal that industrial espionage should not be accepted.
A SAS spokesman said the matter arose after Braathens helped Norwegian with its booking facilities when it launched, but the link with Amadeus was not switched off until 2004.
See also:
European airline traffic Feb10 (10/03/2010)
Norwegian adds more UK routes (17/02/2010)
Ryanair creates 1,700 jobs with first Norwegian base (25/11/2009)
SAS slashes more jobs as loss widens (12/08/2009)
Norwegian Air Shuttle adds 42 more 737s (31/08/2007)