Industrial espionage

Justices: Indreberg, Noer, Arntzen, Thyness, Lindsetmo

An engineer in an oil service company was convicted in the Court of Appeal of violation of section 208 of the Penal Code – of so-called industrial espionage. He had downloaded large amounts of sensitive commercial information on two external hard disks. Being employed in the company, he had access to the documents, but they concerned a project in which he himself was not involved. The Supreme Court agreed with the court of appeal that the appropriation was unlawful. The Court argued that the interpretation of the unlawfulness term had to be based on a broad balancing of the various considerations, and that conviction was required for the highly reprehensible conduct. The individual assessment showed that the purpose of the downloading was personal use, which was against the employer's interest and clearly disloyal. Emphasis could also be placed on his purpose and conduct otherwise in the overall assessment of the unlawfulness. The act was considered grossly reprehensible, and instead considered punishable under section 405a of the 1902 Penal Code.