Toronto
After a two-year legal fight, Canada’s upstart WestJet Airlines has admitted to illegally spying on archrival Air Canada. WestJet this week acknowledged that it stole data from a private reservations Web site operated by Air Canada, which it then used to gain a price advantage on several routes. To end litigation over the theft, WestJet publicly apologized to Air Canada, agreed to pay its rival’s legal costs, and made a $10 million donation to a children’s charity. The spying was discovered after detectives hired by Air Canada went through the garbage of a WestJet executive and found shredded paper, which they reconstructed digitally. The documents included proprietary information from Air Canada.
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