There is little doubt about the legal position: the publication of topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge by Closer magazine in France was illegal. The taking and publishing of the photographs constituted a criminal offence and a civil wrong. But the editor of the magazine, owned by Mondadori France, made a cynical calculation that the likely penalties were going to be much less than the financial rewards. Weighing worldwide publicity against potential penalties of a few tens of thousands of euros, it was no contest.
French privacy law is often described as the toughest in the world. British newspaper editors tell terrifying stories about how, as a result of privacy protection, villains walk the streets unexposed. We previously exposed the errors of this account in relation to Dominique Strauss Kahn.
