French magazine ordered to pay €100,000 in damages to Prince William & Kate’s published topless photos

A French court on Tuesday has ordered Closer magazine to pay €100,000 in damages to Prince William and wife Kate‘s topless photos published in 2012.

According to Daily Mail, the photo was taken while Kate and Prince William were on holiday in Provence, south of France in September 2012.

The court ordered editor, Laurence Pieau; and publisher, Ernesto Mauri, to each pay €45,000 ($53,000) in fines, the maximum possible.

The court also ordered the magazine to hand over the files with the images to the royal couple.

The couple had sought €1.4m in damages and interest and while it is a fraction of their demand, the amount ordered to be paid still stands as one of the highest ever in a privacy case in France.

The French celebrity magazine’s lawyer Paul-Albert Iweins said he was “pleased” with the ruling on the damages to pay, but said the fine was “exaggerated for a simple private matter.”

The royal couple’s lawyer Jean Veil, declined to comment, adding that Kensington Palace would make a statement.

The couple were reportedly snapped with a long lens relaxing by a pool at a chateau belonging to Viscount Linley, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth.

The pictures triggered a furious reaction from the royal family in Britain, where several newspapers rejected an offer to buy the pictures.

Closer, a glossy gossip magazine, was the first to splash them on its cover and the couple filed a criminal complaint about invasion of privacy and obtained an injunction preventing further use of the images.

In a letter read out in court, William said the case reminded him of the paparazzi hounding of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris 20 years ago.

Two Paris-based agency photographers, were each given fines of €10,000, with €5,000 suspended.

They learned of their impending publication while on an Asia-Pacific tour to mark the diamond jubilee of William’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.