A clothing company Pardon was on Thursday ordered to pay 40,000 euros in damages to
Carla Bruni for distributing bags bearing a nude image from the French first lady's modelling days.
The 40-year-old glamorous wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy had dragged clothing vendor Pardon to court for featuring her nude image. The Italian beauty claimed the use of the naked picture constitutes the theft of her image.
The court ruled that the company on the island of La Reunion must pay the French first lady 40,000 euros ($58,400) in damages for having used her nude photo on a line of shopping bags, The Sun said. The model-turned-singer intends to give the sum to a charity, the report said.
The court banned all sales of the bag, which features a black-and-white nude picture of Carla. The clothes designer has produced 10,000 of the shopping bags emblazoned with the nude photo, with the slogan "My man should have taken me shopping at Pardon".
The company has been prohibited from selling or distributing the bag and must pay 3,000 euros in court fees, the British tabloid said.
She was seeking 125,000 euros in damages from the clothing vendor, which distributed the bags to its clients. The firm has promised to destroy the 5,500 'Bruni bags' it has left.
The image caused a stir when it hit the headlines during the French presidential couple’s state visit to Britain in March.
According to the report, Pardon says it will appeal today’s ruling, handed down by a court on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where the company is based. The head of Pardon, Peter Mertes, said he would appeal the judgment. Executives at Pardon had justified the use of Carla's photo by saying that she was "a public woman."