A Hamburg court has ordered a German publisher to pay Sweden's Princess Madeleine 400,000 euro ($560,000) in damages for fabricating stories about her, the parties involved said Friday. The publisher's magazines carried false reports about the 27-year-old princess being engaged and pregnant, among other things, her attorney Matthias Prinz told The AP. Madeleine has been dating boyfriend Jonas Bergström since 2002, but the couple is neither engaged nor married, nor do they have any children. The Swedish Royal Court said in a statement that the court ruled the articles were untrue and degrading. Princess Madeleine intends to donate the money she is finally awarded to charity, the statement said. Sonnenverlag's parent company, Baden-Baden based KLAMBT media group, also confirmed the ruling in a short statement. The amount of the court-ordered damages and the related charges are in the range expected by the KLAMBT media group, the statement said. Appropriate accounting provisions were already undertaken in 2004. Company spokesman Jonas Schmieder said he could not provide more information beyond the release, and declined to say whether the company would attempt another appeal. © GPD AP Sonnenverlag GmbH Co KG was ordered to pay the damages by the Hamburg state court, which was ruling on an appeal against a lower court's 2007 award of 300,000 euro in damages against the publishing house.
Sonnenverlag puts out a raft of magazines in Germany, and the reports were carried in two weekly women's publications, Frau mit Herz (Woman with Heart) and Welt der Frau, (Woman's World), Prinz said. "There were scores of untruthful articles about my client in the publications", he said. The Hamburg state court confirmed that the judgment had been made Thursday, but did not provide further details.
Post a comment
Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.
Your Information
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
Comments