Newly-wed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni have won the Ryanair ad case for using their picture in an ad without their permission.

Irish no-frills airline Ryanair had published an ad in the popular French daily Le Parisien that featured Sarkozy and Bruni smiling while a thought balloon appears above Bruni's head with the words: 'With Ryanair my entire family can come to my wedding.’ The couple took offence to the ad saying that their images were featured without prior permission.

A Paris court, which heard the case, upheld a lawsuit filed by Sarkozy and his new supermodel-turned-singer wife Carla Bruni and ordered Ryanair to pay a total of 60,000 euros in damages to Bruni, who had earlier asked the Irish airline to pay 500,000 euros. It also said that Sarkozy had only asked for a symbolic sum of one euro in damages.

Meanwhile, Matthieu Glasson, the airline company's commercial director in France, came forward and apologized for offending the President and his wife. A report quoting him said that the airline is surprised because the ad features the photograph of the couple in a positive light. According to him, "they are smiling, we aren't making them say anything stupid.”

Fifty three year old Sarkozy married Bruni, 40, on February 2, 2008. The couple tied the knot at a private ceremony held at the Elysee Palace in the presence of their families. The much talked-about couple has dominated media reports in the past few months. In December 2007, Bruni accompanied the president on his trip to Egypt and later to Jordan.

The arrival of Sarkozy to India, which happened before the wedding, was widely reported by the Indian media too. Acres of newsprint were devoted to speculation on whether the French President's celebrity life girl friend would accompany him on his visit to India.