PARIS- A French court has ordered Closer magazine to pay €100,000 (£91,700) in damages over topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton.
Two photographers, suspected of taking the offending shots, are also appealing fines in a case that sparked a scandal in Britain a year after the second-in-line to the British throne married his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton.
In September 2012, The picture of the Royal couple was being published in which Kate was wearing only bikini bottoms – while on holiday at a chateau in the Luberon region of southeastern France.
The magazine’s editor Laurence Pieau and publisher Ernesto Mauri were both found guilty of breach of privacy in September 2017 and fined 45,000 euros ($53,000) each.
Photographers Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides, who deny taking the long-lens shots, were also each ordered to pay 5,000-euro fines, with another 5,000 euros payable if they reoffended.
The magazine had to pay out 100,000 euros in damages after the royal couple filed a claim for 1.5 million euros over what they said was a “serious breach of privacy”.William and Kate also obtained an injunction preventing further use of the images.
The royal couple had launched their legal proceedings in 2012, with a court banning Closer from printing any further images.
Closer’s lawyer Paul-Albert Iweins appealed the ruling, arguing that the fines were “exaggerated for a simple privacy case”.
The photographers’ lawyer Francois Blisten told the France national television channel on Wednesday’s hearing in Versailles, west of Paris, that he would argue for the pair to be acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
