The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have won a landmark legal case against the magazine that published topless photos of Kate last week.
A French judge yesterday ruled in favour of the royal couple, declaring the images a “brutal” invasion of the couple’s privacy and banning Closer from publishing them again.
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The magazine must also remove the images from its website, and cannot sell the pictures on to any other publication.
Failure to comply with any of these conditions will attract a fine of 10,000 euros a day.
The court also ordered the magazine to surrender the original images to William and Kate within 24 hours.
The ruling is a landmark victory for the royal couple, but commentators say it will have little practical impact.
The issue of Closer featuring the photographs in question sold 500,000 copies and the images were uploaded onto the internet and seen by millions around the world.
The legal order is also limited to the photos as they appeared in Closer, meaning other images could be used by other publications.
William and Kate’s lawyers have now turned their attention to tracking down the photographer who took the images.
He or she owns the copyright to the images, and an injunction against them will prevent future sales of the images in France or elsewhere around the world.
“Although it is an important legal step for William and Kate, this ruling doesn’t stop more pictures from being published because we can’t find the photographer,” a source told the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper. “To some extent it’s a hollow victory.”
Related: Why is naked Harry a hero and topless Kate a fool?
They couple have also filed a criminal complaint against Closer under France’s privacy laws, and reportedly plan to do the same to the photographer is identified.
If found guilty, the magazine’s editor and the photographer could be fined up to 40,000 euros and jailed for up to 12 months.
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