A happy day for William and Kate. Another baby on the way. Eight somewhat unctuous pages of the Mail celebrating their fecundity. Then splat! A French court fines Closer magazine €100,000 for those fuzzy five-year-old pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless on a balcony.
But the couple wanted €1.5m, remember. A fifteenth of their claim doesn’t exactly seem like triumph: nor is it likely to prevent Closer’s publisher, Mondadori, or its rivals from setting out for another royal newsstand winner when one drops. (With Meghan chatting to Vogue, can Harry be far behind?)
The plain fact is that the French legal system’s tariff of penalties in privacy cases is – like so much of Europe’s – way out of kilter with the exaggerated fines and costs in the Strand. Suing Closer was always a dud move: one that’s got no better as the years pass.
