In 2020, the NGO Earthsight found IKEA and others to be selling furniture made from wood illegally felled during "silent periods" in the forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians.
INGKA had cleared far bigger areas of protected old-growth forest in Romania than permitted, contributing to local corruption and violence against environmental activists.
IKEA has been accused of financing President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko's repression against political opponents, with Anna Sundström, Secretary-General of the Olof Palme International Center, arguing that the money contributes to maintaining his oppressive regime.
[6] In July 2015, IKEA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, through the company's Safer Homes Together advertising campaign, issued a warning in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland to customers to secure the Malm chests of drawers and wardrobes firmly to the wall using free kits distributed by the company, after the deaths of two young children in the U.S. in February and June 2014 when the furniture tipped over and fell on them.
[7] In June 2016, after a third toddler died in the U.S., IKEA recalled all Malm dressers as well as several similar models which posed a tipping danger if not secured to the wall with the supplied kit.
[13][14] In 2012, IKEA in France was accused by the independent newspaper Le Canard enchaîné and the investigative website Mediapart of spying on its employees and clients by illegally accessing National Police records.
[15][16] The French branch of IKEA went on trial on 22 March 2021, for running an elaborate system to spy on staff members and job applicants by illegally using private detectives and police officers.
Some examples include: In 1994, Stockholm daily newspaper Expressen reported on IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad's past involvement with Swedish pro-Nazi groups as one of the member's archives revealed his name.
[31] In February 2013, IKEA announced it had pulled 17,000 portions of Swedish meatballs containing beef and pork from stores in Europe after testing in the Czech Republic found traces of horse meat in the product.