This time a News Corp subsidiary has been ordered by a French court to pay £32,000 in costs and damages - much of the money going to the state rather than to Mosley himself - after the scandal-sheet was found guilty of violating Mosley's privacy. The publisher and its reporter were found not guilty of defamation.
The front-page story in the NOTW in 2008 - titled 'F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers' - alleged that Mosley "romped" with prostitutes pretending to be concentration camp victims. An accompanying two-hour video was published on the newspaper's website and attracted millions of hits, but was subsequently removed. Mosley took action in the UK and subsequently went to court in France on the basis that copies of the paper and the video were available in that country. He reportedly sought €100,000 in damages.
The Court has now ordered News Group Newspapers to pay a €10,000 (£8,585) fine plus €7,000 in damages, and €15,000 in legal costs. It commented that -
The publication of photographs revealing sexual practices between consenting adults in a private place, whether or not they have Nazi connotations, does not answer the requirement ... of being necessary information in a democratic society.Mosley is likely to be out of pocket. He was awarded £60,000 in the first of his privacy actions in the UK High Court. Legal costs were apparently much higher.
