Image Credit: Scuderia Ferrari In October 2024, Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's most powerful luxury conglomerate, sat down with the president of Formula 1 and signed a ten-year partnership deal reportedly worth $150 million a season. That is $1.5 billion over the life of the contract, making it the largest fashion-adjacent commercial deal in the history of sport. The brands involved, Louis Vuitton, TAG Heuer, Moët & Chandon, and Belvedere, are now woven into the...

Image Credit: Xupes A lawsuit over a handbag is asking one of the most interesting questions in contemporary competition law: can a brand's exclusivity strategy, its deliberate management of scarcity and access, constitute an unlawful tying arrangement? The case of Cavalleri et al. v. Hermès International (No. 3:24-cv-01707), now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, invites the court to say yes. Twice, a district court has said no. The doctrinal stakes extend well beyond...

Image Credit: Nikkei Asia I. Introduction: The Hidden Cost of Beauty Every year, millions of consumers around the world reach for collagen supplements, anti-aging serums, and skin-brightening creams, rarely pausing to ask where the ingredients come from. For a growing number of these products, the answer begins not in a laboratory or a botanical garden, but in the dusty plains of rural Africa, where donkeys are being slaughtered at an alarming rate to meet global demand for a single...