SWEDISH FURNITURE CHAIN Ikea has been accused of hiring detectives to spy on customers in France who lodged complaints about service and product quality.

Ikea confirmed that police searched it French headquarters, seizing internal documents and examining computers as part of a preliminary judicial inquiry. The company also said that it had launched an internal inquiry into the allegations, which were formally lodged by the Force Ouvriere trade union.

Emails were allegedly exchanged between Ikea’s management in France and a private security company, in which  Ikea make a request for the firm to dig up personal information on employees and unhappy shoppers in litigation with the company. The alleged correspondence was published in the investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine.

The investigation will also examine claims that the company paid for illegal access to confidential French police files in order to gain information about employees and customers, reports AFP.

The investigative website Mediapart released the details of three customers that it claimed were investigated by private detectives hired by Ikea.

The list included a US couple living in France who had ordered a kitchen, bed, a toilet and other pieces of furniture from the company – and complained when some of those items did not arrive until two months after the agreed delivery date. Although Ikea agreed to compensate the couple for the inconvenience, it also allegedly hired a detective to investigate their “morality,” the Guardian reports.

The chain has also been accused of imposing excessive monitoring on staff working at its stores.

Ikea released a statement in which it said that it operated under the ideals of “honesty and transparency” no matter which country it was in, and that its internal investigation would reveal if the claims had any truth to them or not.