Max Mosley has launched a libel action against News of the World, following on from his victory last week at the high court.

Mosley won £60,000 in damages from the paper for invasion of privacy after the newspaper alledged that he took part in a "Nazi orgy". Mr Justice Eady ruled there was no public interest in the story, and that there were no Nazi connotations in what Mosley was doing.

Mosley, the president of FIA, motor racing's governing body, issued a writ for defamation against the newspaper on Friday, the Guardian reported.

Mosley has also begun criminal and civil actions against media organisations across Europe, including a £1.2m lawsuit against the publisher of Germany's largest newspaper, Bild, which wrongly alleged that Mosley's sadomasochistic sex session with five dominatrices had "Nazi connotations".

The action against Bild's publisher, Axel Springer AG, is for breach of trust, violations of copyright and fraud. Mosley is claiming Bild spent money for "illegal purposes" by paying for the video and photos of the orgy.

Jennifer McDermott, media partner at the law firm Withers, media outlets which repeated the Nazi allegation would find it difficult to defend the action because of Mr Justice Eady's ruling, but that damages were unlikely to be huge because of Mosley's damaged reputation.

Source: Guardian.co.uk