Duchess of Sussex by marrying Prince Harry, grandson of the Queen of England your title Meghan Markle won a lawsuit she filed last year against the Mail on Sunday newspaper for violating her privacy. Now that this decision has become final, it has been announced that the Associated Newspapers group of companies, which owns the newspaper, will pay the Duchess £1 in compensation.
The amount of compensation was stated in the court documents, which officially recorded that the newspaper admitted that it lost the case and would not appeal, that is, that the decision was final.
In 2018, Mail on Sunday published a handwritten letter from Meghan Markle to her father, Tomas Markle.
Since the media company was also found guilty of infringing on Markle’s copyrights, it will also pay an unspecified amount of compensation in this regard.
The Associated Newspapers group previously reported that it was considering appealing the decision, but now appears to have accepted the outcome of the long-running legal process.
In February last year, the Supreme Court ruled against the newspaper on privacy and copyright issues and ruled that the elements of the case were very clear and that a full trial was not required.
The Associated Newspaper group of companies’ appeal against the decision was rejected, but the group still applied to the Court of Appeal for the reversal of the initial decision.
However, in December, the Court of Appeal also rejected the group’s request for trial.
In the reasoning for the refusal, the judges noted that they did not consider it possible to present evidence to the court that could change the verdict, even if the matter was tried with a rehearing.
Regarding the first sentence, they commented, “The Judge has rightly decided that it may be proportionate to publish only a small portion of the letter, but that half of the letter need not be published”.
A spokesperson for the Associated Newspaper group reiterated that they wanted a lengthy trial when the decision was made, saying, “We strongly believe that a verdict in a highly contentious case should be made solely on the basis of evidence presented during a trial, not a shortened trial.”
In a written statement made after the decision, the Duchess urged people to “be brave to align the tabloid industry, which profits from the lies and the pain they cause”.
Why is compensation only £1?
Associated Newspapers was ordered to pay Markle an anonymous compensation for copyright infringement, while Markle would have to pay a substantial portion of court costs, which is thought to be well over £1 by Mail on Sunday.
Media cases attorney Mark Stephens told the Guardian that the £1 compensation indicated the weakness of the Duchess’ privacy complaint.
“Normally, in cases of breach of privacy, compensation is expected to be between £75k and £125,000,” Stephens added.
Yet another lawyer handling such compensation cases, David Hooper, commented on the low amount of compensation in an interview with the Daily Beast, saying that “£1 has probably avoided the huge debate about how much damage the Duchess may have suffered.”
“This may have cost perhaps half a million pounds in due process, but she (the Duchess) wanted to show that she was right in principle and to pay for her court costs,” he added.