Court in France to Ryanair: Pay Sarkozy and Bruni
February 12, 2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife, Carla Bruni, have won their lawsuit against low-cost airline Ryanair. A court in France ordered the Irish airline, known for its outrageous and irreverent advertising, to pay slightly less than $90,000 in damages over a French newspaper ad for the airline showing a photo of Sarkozy and Bruni.
Sarkozy and Bruni filed separate lawsuits that were heard together in a court session in Paris, seeking damages for the airline’s unauthorized use of the image for commercial purposes. The image was one that had already been seen all over France in magazines and newspapers, all of which had been breathlessly reporting on the courtship of the recently-divorced President of France and the beautiful Italian, Carla Bruni.
Bruni, a former model turned singer, was awarded nearly $89,000 by the French court. She had demanded that Ryanair pay more than $741,000 in damages. Sarkozy asked for a symbolic one euro, which the French court granted.
A lawyer for the couple, who said his side was satisfied with the ruling, revealed that model and singer Bruni would donate her court awarded money damages to Restos du Coeur — a well-known network of restaurants and soup kitchens that help feed the homeless in France.
A spokesman for Ryanair agreed that the case had been “settled satisfactorily,” and that his company offered to match the award of the French court and donate another $89,000 to a charity of Sarkozy’s choice. He said the company was willing to make this gesture because of all the extra free publicity in France and the rest of Europe prompted by the advertisement and the ensuing legal wrangling.
The ad ran in the French daily Le Parisien newspaper, seen all over France, on Jan. 28. The couple’s sense-of-humor deficit over the ad may have had a lot to do with timing: it came out about a week before the couple’s “secret” wedding in France and when they were still keeping mum about any wedding plans. The ad shows a romantic photo of Sarkozy and Bruni gazing dreamily into space, with a thought balloon over Bruni’s head that reads, “With Ryanair, my whole family will be able to attend my wedding.” Ryanair is a low-cost airline known for its extreme promotions, such as 1-euro fares to and from France and elsewhere in Europe. Other cut-rate airlines with a similar business model such as EasyJet also use “in-your-face” ads to get attention.
Ryanair’s spokesman revealed that the company had sent a written apology in late January to the president of France, vowing not to re-run the ad, with an offer to donate about $7,400 to his favorite charity. The airline’s spokesman said Ryanair had made Bruni similar offer. But while the company agreed that it owed the couple something, especially in view of all the free publicity it has received, it rejected Bruni’s demand for more than $741,000 as over the top. Apparently the court in France agreed.
While the Sarkozy-Bruni romance may have been good for the image of Ryanair, it has not done much for the president of France, whose poll numbers have slipped to an all-time low. Many in France believe his fall from his pedestal is in large part due to the view in France that Sarkozy is more interested in his love life with Italian-born singer Bruni than in fulfilling his campaign promises to the people of France.
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