PARIS: A French court ordered budget airline Ryanair on Tuesday to pay damages to President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni for using their picture in an advertisement but the sum was less than Bruni had sought.

The court ordered Ryanair to pay symbolic damages of one euro to Sarkozy and 60,000 euros ($88,870) to his wife. Bruni, at one time one of the world’s most highly paid fashion models, had been seeking damages of 500,000 euros.

Sarkozy and Bruni sued Ryanair over the advertisement for cut price tickets published in Le Parisien newspaper last week, featuring a photo of the smiling pair.

The advertisement showed a cartoon bubble above Bruni, the scion of an Italian industrial dynasty, reading: “With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding.”

Ryanair had admitted the advertisement was facetious and offered to make a 5,000 euros donation to charity but its lawyers argued that as a high profile couple, Sarkozy and Bruni had to accept inconvenient attention.—Reuters