NEWS | Wednesday, 06 February 2008

Monsieur and Madame Sarkozy awarded damages over Ryanair case

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his bride Carla Bruni have won a case against low-cost airline Ryanair for using their picture without consent.
But the court in Paris awarded Bruni only 60,000 euros (US$89,000; £45,000) - a fraction of the 500,000 euros she had asked for.
Sarkozy was given the symbolic single euro he had claimed for himself.
The couple sued over an advert which showed Bruni saying: “With Ryanair, all my family can attend my wedding.”
The advert appeared in France before the couple’s wedding on Saturday.
Bruni - a former model - said 500,000 euros would have been her normal professional fee for appearing in an advertisement.
But the court put her loss of earnings at only 60,000 euros.
Ryanair had apologised before the case came to court for using the couple’s image without their consent, insisting it meant no offence.
“It was a humorous comment on a matter of great public interest,” a Ryanair spokeswoman in Dublin said.
The couple’s relationship has been front-page news worldwide since it began late last year, after the president’s divorce.
The court also ordered the airline to publish its verdict in the newspaper which had carried the original advertisement.