A French court has given maximum fines but awarded limited damages in the case of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge that outraged the British royal family, reports the AP. The court in a Paris suburb ruled Tuesday that three photographers and three newspaper executives invaded the privacy of Kate Middleton by taking and publishing the photos. Two executives of a French gossip magazine and two photographers working with a photo agency were collectively ordered to pay $59,500 in damages to Kate and the same amount to her husband, Prince William.
The amount is well below the $1.8 million in damages reportedly sought by the royal couple. The couple, who didn't attend the verdict hearing, had filed a complaint after the photos were published in gossip magazine Closer and a regional newspaper in 2012, the year after their wedding. The pictures of Kate were taken with telephoto lenses while she and her husband apparently were sunbathing on a patio at a private estate in France's southern Provence region. (The Duke and Duchess have big news.)
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