Monopoly in Disguise?

 

Luxottica, probably you might have not heard this name before, but what if I tell you that you have a sure shot chance that at least one the things of this brand is in your home!

Yes, I was also surprised like you when I came to know about it the first time, and you will also get shocked knowing about the crazy monopoly it holds. So basically Luxottica is an Italian eyewear company and it owns almost 80% of every brand of eyewear, from prescription opticals to sunglasses. So the new pairs of Ray-Ban or Oakleys you might be thinking to buy may contribute to Luxottica. And now you might be getting somewhat clear that why the $20 pair of glasses cost you whopping $400, the price same as of a flagship smartphone!

They own both cheap and luxury brands of eyewear, so it is very easy for the, to control the price and make you pay literally whatever they like. For example, a premium sports eyewear brand, Oakley, decided to fight against this monopoly and guess what, Luxottica also owns all the major glasses’ store too, so if you were also thinking for a minute, that I would go to a different glass store and compete it, so here’s for you. Luxottica dropped Oakley from all of its stores forcing Oakley’s share price to crash and after that, it was acquired by Luxottica under their name. So basically it has so much power that if any company don’t play by their rules, they can bring them down to the brink of destruction and take over that company. So directly or indirectly it controls all the prices of the eyewear available out there in the market.

If you are fed up from this much than sorry to say, that’s not all yet. Luxottica also owns the second-largest eye insurance company in America, EyeMed. That means its possible for your optometrist, your insurance company, the factory that makes your frames and the stores that sell them to you, can all be owned by the same company.

I know what you are thinking, and to consolidate that, here’s what Luxottica’s CEO, Andrea Guerra, wants to say, “Everything is worth what people are willing to pay.” And you might be also thinking that most of the glasses can be labelled as Luxottica, but they are not, because what Luxottica is really selling you is “the illusion of choice”.