are super expensive because 1) the required precision of the prescription grinding and 2) 25% of the global and 30% of the US eyeglass industry is controlled by one company.
"Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes and retails its eyewear brands, including LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Apex by Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, Eyemed vision care plan, and Glasses.com. Its best known brands are Costa, Ray-Ban, Persol, Oliver Peoples and Oakley.
Luxottica also makes sunglasses and prescription frames for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Michael Kors, Coach, Miu Miu and Tory Burch.[6][7][8][5]
In January 2017, Luxottica announced a merger with Essilor.[9] The combined entity would command more than one quarter of global value sales of eyewear.[10][5] In March 2018, the European Commission unconditionally approved the merger of Essilor and Luxottica.[11] On 1 October 2018, the new holding company EssilorLuxottica was born, resulting in combined market capitalization of approximately $70 billion.[12]
Luxottica also owns EyeMed Vision Care, a managed vision care organization in the United States.[40] As of 2014, it is the second largest vision benefits company in the United States.[41][42][43]
The company has been criticized for the high price of its brand-name glasses, such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, and several others. A 2012 60 Minutes segment focused on whether the company's extensive holdings in the industry were used to keep prices high. Luxottica owns not only a large portfolio of brands (over a dozen[44]) such as Ray-Ban and Oakley but also retailers such as Sunglass Hut and Oliver Peoples, the optical departments at Target and Sears, as well as key eye insurance groups including the second largest glasses insurance firm in the US. It has been accused of operating a complete monopoly on the optical industry and overcharging for its products; for example, temporarily dropping then-competitor Oakley from its frame design list, then, when the company stock crashed, purchasing the company, then increasing the prices of its Ray-Ban sunglasses. In addition, it has been argued that, by owning the vision insurance company EyeMed, it also controls part of the buyers' market as well.[42]"
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