Prince Harry Loses Privacy Lawsuit Against Daily Mail Publishers

Prince Harry's war with the British tabloids just hit another roadblock ... because he and a group of celebrity pals struck out in court against the publisher of the Daily Mail.

Harry and the other high-profile claimants accused Associated Newspapers Limited of illegally digging up information for stories about them ... but after an 11-week trial, the High Court ruled they simply didn't prove it.

In a 436-page judgment, the judge found the claimants failed to show the reporting stemmed from unlawful information gathering ... saying there were legitimate explanations for how the information could have been obtained -- so, the case was dismissed.

The newspaper chain maintained that from day one, it played by the rules and gathered its stories through lawful reporting methods. The publisher also argued the lawsuits came too late under the UK's statute of limitations, but the judge said there was no need to fully weigh that argument after tossing the claims on their merits.