All Legal & Institutional articles
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News briefs
Spectaris appoints new head of Consumer Optics division
Spectaris, the German optical industry association, has appointed Stephan Schenk, a seasoned executive with extensive experience in optometry and communications, as head of its Consumer Optics division, effective July 8, 2026. Schenk joins from hellomateo, a Berlin-based B2B software company enabling local businesses to centralize customer messaging and automate communication ...
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News briefs
The ABDO announces leadership changes
The Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) has appointed Brenda Rennie at its new President, succeeding Kevin Gutsell. After having worked as a van driver at the start of her professional life, Rennie changed career and became a qualified dispensing optician in 2001 through distance learning. She became ABDO’s first ...
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ArticleFrance unclear on, wary of smart glasses, survey shows
At least in France, smart glasses are misunderstood, feared and associated with a single model. So says a recent survey, Les Français et les lunettes connectées (in French), published by France’s National Commission on IT and Liberties (CNIL). Conducted online by consumer-research firm Toluna Harris, the survey polled 2,128 French ...
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EssilorLuxottica partners with NPO on ocular surface health
EssilorLuxottica has entered into a strategic partnership with the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS), an international NPO supporting research and education in ocular surface health, particularly on dry eye disease and its impact on various eye surgeries. As part of the agreement, the Franco-Italian group is sponsoring a ...
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News briefs
Meta urged to drop reported facial recognition plans
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a U.S. civil‑rights and civil‑liberties organization, led a coalition of over 70 such organizations in sending an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to abandon plans to add facial recognition to the company’s smart eyewear. The coalition argues that smart glasses ...
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News briefs
UK's Optical Suppliers Association joins Healthcare from the Eye
The UK’s Optical Suppliers Association (OSA) has announced it has joined The Alliance for Healthcare from the Eye to promote the ethical adoption of oculomics, the leveraging of ocular data for earlier disease risk identification. The organzation stressed that the new field is fostering a shift from reactive treatments to ...
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Blue Elephant representative reportedly behind bars in Gentle Monster IP infringement case
The legal dispute between Gentle Monster and Blue Elephant, two Korean eyewear brands, has taken an unusually dramatic turn as “Choi,” the representative of the latter company, was arrested and indicted last week on charges including violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, according to The Chosun Daily. As previously ...
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News briefs
The German optician association elects a new president
The Zentralverband der Augenoptiker und Optometristen (ZVA), Germany’s association of opticians and optometrists, has unanimously elected Kai Jaeger as its President during its general meeting last weekend. Jaeger, who was a ZVA Vice President in the previous board, is succeeding Christian Müller who becomes Honorary President. Müller has been on ...
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Daegu government launches K-Eyewear policy initiative
The Daegu Metropolitan Government (South Korea) officially launched the K-Eyewear Global Policy Council yesterday, a public-private initiative aimed at supporting the development of the country’s eyewear industry which “has suffered from low-price attacks from latecomers.” The government, however, stressed that the “hallyu” (the global spread of the country’s pop culture) ...
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ArticleMeta AI glasses sending intimate data to third parties?
According to a joint report by two Swedish newspapers, workers in Nairobi, Kenya, have been reviewing intimate episodes – in the form of video and audio recordings and transcribed user interactions – from the lives of users of the smart glasses produced by Meta and EssilorLuxottica. Some of these episodes ...
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News briefsSmart glasses a no-no in California court
A judge threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others on Feb. 18 with charges of contempt of court should they use their Ray-Ban Meta glasses to record the proceedings, according to Forbes. Apparently, Zuckerberg and at least some of his personnel entered the court wearing the smart glasses. At issue ...
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ArticleTrump’s tariffs – a timeline
Here, Eyewear Intelligence contributors will post all the news regarding Trump´s tariffs that have an effect on the industry.
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Leading smart ring brand files smart glasses system patent in the US
Oura, the leading smart ring company, filed a patent application in the US last month for a system connecting its health-monitoring rings to a pair of smart glasses. The detailed filing can be found on the US patents database (n°20260023426). The main idea behind the system is that users could ...
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Italian eyewear innovation center launched in Belluno
Innovereye, an Italian innovation center focused on the adoption of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) in the eyewear sector, has been launched in Belluno with the Italian eyewear trade association ANFAO, the Belluno Dolomiti chapter of the Italian business association Confindustria and Aivisory, a consultancy focused on AI adoption, ...
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Italy’s Anfao, trade unions reach agreement on new labor contract
The Italian eyewear trade association Anfao reached an agreement with trade union representatives on the terms of a new contract affecting the approximately 20,000 workers in Italy’s eyewear industry and covering the 2026-2028 period. The contract foresees a gradual increase in average monthly salaries over the three years, which will ...
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Thélios sanctioned in Romania in online sales restriction case
Consiliul Concurentei, the market competition watchdog in Romania, has sanctioned Thélios and Shades Originators, its local trade partner. The agency says that Thélios’ commercial policy prohibited Shades Originators from selling its luxury eyewear. The eyewear subsidiary of LVMH Group was sanctioned with a 4.5 million lei fine (€0.9m). Shades Originators, ...
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ArticleHong Kong smart eyewear company seeks 'billions of dollars' in damages from Meta-Essilux
Solos Technology, a Hong Kong-based smart glasses company, is suing Meta Platforms, Meta Platforms Technologies, Oakley, Luxottica of America and EssilorLuxottica USA for “willful direct and indirect patent infringement” of its own “foundational technologies.” The case was filed with the US District Court of Massachusetts on Jan. 23, 2025, and ...
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Turkish competition authorities investigate EssilorLuxottica
Rekabet Kurumu, the Turkish market-competition watchdog, is opening an investigation into EssilorLuxottica’s commercial practices after a preliminary inquiry at the end of last year. The agency suspects that the eyewear group “has created de facto exclusivity via various practices in the markets for the wholesale of ophthalmic lenses, wholesale of ...
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ArticleGentle Monster throws legal challenge at fast-growing K-eyewear challenger
Gentle Monster is taking legal aim at Blue Elephant, another South Korean eyewear brand successfully surfing the “hallyu”, the global K-pop culture trend, albeit at much lower price points. IiCombined, the mother company of Gentle Monster, reportedly filed a criminal complaint against its competitor with South Korean authorities in December ...
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News briefs
The EU introduces €3 duty on small parcels
The European Union has decided to implement a temporary customs duty of €3 per item on e-commerce parcels valued under €150, starting July 1, 2026. This change ends the previous tax exemption for such shipments, and is expected to impact Chinese e-commerce retailers like Shein,Temu or AliExpress, which accounted for ...
