Clothing company Pardon has been fined more than 40,000 euros in damages for manufacturing bags which had a nude image of the president's wife Carla Bruni on them.

Pardon used an image which was taken in 1993 in the days when Bruni was a model. She originally tried to sue the company for a larger amount and claimed that the unauthorised use of the image had caused her moral and financial damage.

The bags which were only sold in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion were printed in black white with the nude image which featured Bruni posing modestly with her hands covering her nether region and a speech bubble which proclaimed 'My boyfriend should have bought me Pardon".

Pardon had manufactured around 10,000 of the bags and had already sold half of them prior to Carla Bruni taking legal action, the remaining stock will be destroyed. The founder of the Pardon Peter Mertes has said that the company would appeal against the ruling, Bruni had said previously that she would donate damages from the case to charity.

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