The only strategy capable of countering the widespread phenomenon of counterfeit goods is to attack the sources of supply of the thousands of purveyors of pirated goods. Luxottica Group has therefore decided to limit action against retailers of counterfeit eyewear and concentrate its efforts on identifying the main flows of fraudulent goods and to organize brand protection strategies accordingly.

 

In 2008, brand protection activities were successfully continued, leading to the destruction of over 1.1 million pairs of counterfeit eyewear. This was the result of consolidating and strengthening programs initiated in previous years, focusing on monitoring the production and trafficking of pirated goods through constant investigations in China and tight Customs control. 2008 also saw the start up of a program to monitor the more popular on-line auction platforms. This allowed around 17,500 offers of counterfeit eyewear to be removed.