1. Luxury Companies Could Bid for De Beers. Luxury goods companies such as LVMH, Hermes or Richemont could ultimately end up owning the company that once enjoyed a 90 percent monopoly on gem quality diamonds. – Read More on Idex

2. These Models Gave Up Photoshoots to Sell Their AI Likenesses. Brands can now connect with him via AI Fashion and he can approve or deny their offers. If he approves, AI Fashion will be able to generate photos of him modeling that brand’s apparel. Read More on the WSJ

3. U.S. Says China Moving Too Slowly on Protecting Intellectual Property. The Biden administration called on China to improve its protections of intellectual property, saying that the pace of Beijing’s reforms remains too slow. Read More in Bloomberg

4. A Tough Time To Ban Non-Competes. While the less-easy-to-agree-upon and less-easy-to-enforce non-disclosure agreements still remain viable—for now—they really do not offer comparable benefits to the employer. Read More on Forbes

5. RELATED READ: How Much Will the FTC’s New Noncompete Ban Actually Impact Fashion? While many of fashion’s biggest names are in the EU, these same companies do not maintain ranks of executives and scores of employees in the U.S., who will be subject to the FTC’s new rule. Read More on TFL

1. TikTok Shop Tops 500,000 US Sellers After 2023 E-Commerce Launch. TikTok reported that more than 500,000 merchants were selling to US users on its app at the end of 2023, more than double the number from three months earlier, as the video service stepped up its e-commerce effort. – Read More on Bloomberg

2. Trader Joe’s must pay union’s legal fees for ‘weak’ trademark lawsuit. Trader Joe’s must pay more than $100,000 in attorneys’ fees for bringing an “exceptionally weak” trademark lawsuit against its employee union, a California federal judge has determined. – Read More on Reuters

3. Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy: “The weave was just a pragmatic thing because the leather was so thin. To make a soft bag that will last longer, they wove it, which I find amazing. The intrecciato is a solution that became an aesthetic. I love this.” – Read More on the FT

4. RELATED READ: As Bottega Veneta Highlights its Intrecciato Weave, What Do its Rights Look Like? It is well-established that the scope of protection for the intrecciato is limited: The configuration elucidated in Bottega’s registration is narrowly construed – down to the millimeter. – Read More on TFL

5. A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed. A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Meta argues that US law requires the company to let people use unofficial add-ons to gain more control over their social feeds. – Read More on Wired

1. LVMH Is Considering Options for Marc Jacobs Amid Buyer Interest, Sources Say: The fashion giant has been working with advisers to study possibilities for Marc Jacobs after getting approaches from suitors.  The brand could attract bids from other consumer companies as well as private equity firms. – Read More on Bloomberg

2. Lina Khan Wears Prada. Europe and Japan have approved the merger, which is more evidence that the FTC lawsuit comes out of left field. There’s no legal or economic logic to the Khan FTC’s antitrust policy other than that the only good merger is a dead merger. – Read More on the WSJ

3. China’s shoppers still want luxury. But they’re OK with secondhand. The rising popularity of secondhand luxury goods is an extension of a growing emphasis on value in daily shopping habits – notably among Gen Z consumers, who face an uncertain job market. – Read More on Nikkei Asia

4. In the Battle of Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar, A.I. Is Playing Spoiler. “I don’t think any of us want to live in a world where you can just create unauthorized representations of people without their permission,” said Alex Jae Mitchell, the chief executive of Boomy, a generative A.I. music start-up. – Read More on the New York Times

5. Lawsuit over Wall Street’s ‘Fearless Girl’ statue is settled. Kristen Visbal and State Street Global Advisors signed a settlement agreement following mediation earlier in the month, their lawyers said in a letter filed on Saturday in federal court in Manhattan. – Read More on Reuters

1. Secondhand fashion seller Vinted moves into profit after 61% sales rise. The Lithuania-based group said growth had been spurred by entering new markets; an expansion into luxury fashion through its acquisition of secondhand fashion site Rebelle in 2022; and the launch of a verification service. – Read More on the Guardian

2. You Know LVMH for Its Luxury Bags. It’s Also a Titan of Real Estate. In up-and-coming areas like the Design District, LVMH largely dictates the neighborhood experience, from which tenants are allowed in to what artworks dot the many plazas and even the types of events that are held there. – Read More on the WSJ

3. L’Occitane owner offers to take skincare group private at €6.5bn valuation. Billionaire Reinold Geiger’s deal would result in the company delisting from the Hong Kong stock exchange. – Read More on the FT

4. GenAI Can Help Companies Do More with Customer Feedback. Companies that are struggling to find the right place to deploy new AI tech should consider use cases involving “voice of the customer” applications — parsing, interpreting, and responding to customer input from all different channels. – Read More on HBR

5. Luxury Brands Have a New Challenge. Ordinary Rich People Are Pulling Back. Luxury brands have a problem. While the ultrawealthy have been happy to keep spending, shoppers just a rung lower on the income ladder aren’t splurging as much on goods. – Read More on Barron’s

1. Hermès soars and Kering stumbles in widening luxury divergence. “The first quarter luxury reporting season flagged a widening divergence between the well-off and the aspirational shoppers, and a likely weakening shape to sales in recent weeks.” – Read More on the FT

2. The case of Fruity Pebbles: in early 2024, Post Foods, LLC was unable to secure a federal registration for the seven colors of its popular Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal. – Read More on Reuters

3. Chinese luxury shoppers have a new favorite destination. Amid a rare currency slide and a major tourism boom across the country, Japan has emerged as a luxury spending hotspot for Chinese consumers. – Read More on Jing Daily

4. LVMH-backed firm buys into Italy’s KIKO in $1.5B make-up deal. LVMH-backed buyout firm L Catterton has agreed to buy a majority stake in KIKO Milano in a deal that reportedly values the family-owned Italian low-cost make-up group at around 1.4B euros ($1.5B) including debt. – Read More on Reuters

5. RELATED READ: From APC to Birkenstock, a Timeline of L Catterton Investments, Acquisitions. Here is a look at the timeline behind L Catterton’s quest to build “iconic and enduring consumer brands,” which has seen it invest in leading consumer brands across various consumer goods/services segments. – Read More on TFL

1. Why the pre-owned luxury watch market is thriving. “Prices are increasing — especially when you look at prices in the primary market, and the price level of the primary market is one of the key driving forces of the prices of the secondary market. We expect in the long term the secondary prices to remain stable — and go up again.” – Read More on CNN

2. Consumer interest in luxury goods rising. 15% of Americans purchased luxury goods in the last 12 months, up from 9% in 2021, according to YouGov’s report, “The US Luxury Boom 2024.” – Read More on Chain Store Age

3. Chanel CEO Says Price Hikes Driven by Inflation, Craftsmanship. The fashion label, known for its haute couture designs and fragrances, takes account of inflation and its high standards for materials and craftsmanship in setting prices. – Read More on Bloomberg

4. Drake threatened with lawsuit over diss track featuring AI Tupac. Tupac’s legal team is ready to take Drake to court over the release of “Taylor Made,” Drake’s recently released song featuring the AI-generated voices of Shakur and Snoop Dogg. – Read More on the Verge

5. RELATED READ: With the Rise of GenAI, a Federal Right of Publicity is Taking Center Stage. As deepfakes, fake-swapping apps, and AI-powered avatars start to become more prominent, one recurring issue centers on how individuals can protect their likenesses from being used without their authorization. – Read More on TFL

6. Hermes quarterly sales jump 17% on strong China demand. “Our more well-off clients continued to visit our stores [in China],” said du Halgouet. Globally, the leather goods division, the company’s largest, grew by 20% in the quarter, driven by new models such as the Constance Elan bag. – Read More on Yahoo

1. Why People Really Buy Upcycled Products. Our findings revealed that comments on upcycled items more frequently mentioned aspects related to creativity and sustainability than those on non-upcycled items. – Read More on HBR

2. Designer brands owed millions after Matchesfashion collapse. Designer brands including Gucci and Anya Hindmarch have been left millions of pounds out of pocket and some customers will not get refunds after online fashion site Matchesfashion collapsed owing more than £210m last month. – Read More on the Guardian

3. RELATED READ: A Fashion & Retail Bankruptcy Tracker. A running look at some of the most recent fashion and retail-related bankruptcy filings. – Read More on TFL

4. Prada Posts Higher Revenue Despite Luxury Slowdown. “While the industry is experiencing new dynamics, we retain our ambition to deliver solid, sustainable and above market growth,” Chief Executive Andrea Guerra said. – Read More on the WSJ

5. Etsy crochet buyers say AI-made images are being used to sell disappointing patterns. Etsy broadly allows AI-generated content, to the dismay of some sellers. However, Etsy requires sellers to accurately depict their products in listing photos. – Read More on NBC

6. Tuscany’s luxury suppliers feel chill from China and changing trends. Waning Chinese demand for luxury goods has compounded the problems of Tuscany’s traditional leather companies as the big fashion houses they supply reshape their strategies, leading to painful layoffs that could be just the start. – Read More on Reuters

1. Gucci Owner Kering Expects Sharp Drop in Operating Profit After China Weighs on Sales. Kering expects sharply lower operating profit in the first half after sales slumped in the first three months as the company grapples with sluggish demand, particularly in China. – Read More on the WSJ

2. Kering could pursue “incremental M&A,” says CFO. French luxury group Kering  has a healthy balance sheet that would allow for “incremental” mergers and acquisitions, Chief Financial Officer Armelle Poulou told analysts on Tuesday. – Read More on Reuters

3. Is Generative AI built on theft? The companies behind this wonder of tech are facing allegations of using copyrighted material to build their large language models. But will the courts consider it fair use? – Hear More on the Economist

4. RELATED READ: OpenAI Argues Fair Use in Bid to Trim Authors’ Copyright Lawsuits. Shedding light on how it views its use of others’ works, OpenAI cites the 2021 decision in Google v. Oracle. – Read More on TFL

5. Four innovations helping the fashion industry embrace the circular economy. Global pre-owned clothing sales reached $211 billion in 2023, a 19% increase on the previous year, with a report by GlobalData for secondhand clothing resale site ThredUp predicting the market could reach $350bn by 2027. – Read More on WEForum

6. The Rise and Fall of ESG. Interest in ESG peaked in 2023 and its sharp decline seemed to have begun. A recent Wall Street Journal news story was entitled, “The Latest Dirty Word in Corporate America: ESG.” – Read More on Forbes

1. Retail has a new solution to the returns problem: returnless refunds. Behind the policy is “a formula of everything you buy and the projected net profit that the retailer is going to make, or gross margin, on that particular customer.” – Read More on the FT

2. TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK. Since launching TikTok Shop in 2022, the platform has sold around $1 billion or more worth of products. – Read More on TechCrunch

3. How green are your trainers? Unveiling Team Japan’s official wear, Asics said the jackets, trousers and other items athletes will wear on the podium and at press conferences would have the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during production stamped on them, in a nod to the green goals put forth by the host city. – Read More on Reuters

4. Sustainable Fashion Has Lost Its Meaning. Greenwashing has made it so that small changes by a brand, like switching to recycled polyester or organic cotton, supersede the fact that the amount of clothing produced is still growing, the amount of textile waste is increasing, and workers’ wages and conditions are worsening. – Read More on Yahoo

5. RELATED READ: Fashion’s Buzzy Tech Initiatives, Alone, Won’t Solve its Sustainability Issues. A small – but heavily advertised – recycled capsule collection from a fast fashion titan, here or certified circular series of items from a multi-billion-dollar company, there, is mathematically immaterial. – Read More on TFL

6. Armani ‘Doesn’t Rule Out’ Merger or IPO in Succession Plan. After fighting for years to keep Giorgio Armani SpA independent amid the mergers and acquisitions that reshaped the luxury sector, Armani now says he won’t rule out his firm someday combining with a bigger rival or listing on an exchange. – Read More on Bloomberg

1. LVMH accounts for bigger share of French exports than agricultural sector. The €23.5B value of its goods heading abroad last year beat the 3.2 percent contribution of the entire agricultural sector, reinforcing the importance of the luxury sector to France’s trade balance. – Read More on the FT

2. Superfakes: The illicit world of luxury counterfeits. A dive into the complex network of high-end replica handbags and delves into the billion-dollar industry of counterfeit luxury goods. – See More on ABC News

3. Newsweek is making generative AI a fixture in its newsroom. “Newsweek believes that AI tools can help journalists work faster, smarter and more creatively,” reads the updated standards page.” – Read More on Nieman Lab

4. Mytheresa Sees Sales Gains in Struggling World of Luxury E-commerce. “The results underscore that Mytheresa is not just a luxury e-commerce platform. We build a community for luxury enthusiasts and create desirability through digital and physical experiences.” – Read More on Yahoo

5. Boards Still Have an ESG Expertise Gap — But They’re Improving. Recent developments show a positive shift, with the percentage of Fortune 100 board members possessing relevant ESG credentials rising from 29% to 43%. – Read More on HBR

6. World Retail Congress tackles climate change and AI. Retailers not adapting to the challenges of climate change will only increase their cost of doing business, Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard said. – Read More on Axios