A court judge in Spain has ordered Warner Bros. to pay 25,000 euros in compensation to a Moroccan businessman. A picture of him appears next to that of the Gambino family, the notorious Italian mafioso, in a film made by the company.
The photo of the Moroccan businessman, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, appears in a 2016 film, whose main character is Ben Affleck.
According to the newspaper, the judicial file has hidden the name of the Moroccan businessman who resides in Valencia, but his photo is clear in the film.
The latter initially claimed 250,000 euros from the company Warner Bros.
In fact, he states in the lawsuit that his son identified him in the film. He added that he was damaged because of this, claiming from the judge to compensate him.
The court in Valencia indicated in its verdict that the face of the person concerned appears for less than a second in the film, which lasts 115 minutes, but this does not mean that the company did not make a mistake by using his photo without his consent.
On the other hand, Warner Bros. stated that “the photo was taken from a genuine FBI arrest warrant issued against the businessman in question, since he was accused of a crime in 2004.”
In spite of this, the Spanish justice decided that the photo was used “without any kind of consent, tacit or explicit” and that it appeared under a label that reads “Alleged associates of the Gambino family”.
The court added that the use of this photo is a violation of the businessman’s image and damaged his reputation”.
The judge awarded him 25,000 euros in damages, and rejected his request for 250,000 euros since he could not justify that he suffered financially because of the appearance of his image in the film.
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