Luxury and Law: An Ambivalent Relationship

Extract

[...] It has thus been extended to European Union law with Regulation No. 3295/94 of December 22 December 1994 and partially to international law with the intellectual property rights of the Uruguay Round in 1993. In addition, parasitism, which harms the prestige of the brand by trivializing it, is also punished. This has given rise to controversy because while some consider it to be using the work of others, restrictions on parasitism could harm the freedom of commerce and industry. In any case, the legislator, through case law (Orient-Express case), adheres to the vision of parasitism as a practice that erodes the economic value of brands and trivializes the use of their signs, whether it is a reproduction of the brand's work on the same market or on an external market. [...]

[...] RTDCom, Luxury and Law - Nicolas Cuzacq (2002) Luxury and Law RTD Com p. 605 Nicolas Cuzacq, Doctor of Law, Aggregated in Economics and Management In this text, Nicolas Cuzacq presents the relationship that law maintains with luxury, a rather ambivalent relationship, reminiscent of the definition of luxury itself. This definition is complex because it is evolving and subject to subjectivity. We associate it with the notion of prestige, reputation, but also of futility. Its etymology suggests a dimension of 'light', 'radiation', but also refers to excess and depravity. [...]

[...] However, luxury can also be perceived as a symbol of culture and refinement associated with beauty. Economically, it also occupies a privileged place as the luxury industry plays an important role at the national level in the creation of wealth and jobs. It is in this way that in 1965, the Paris Court of Appeal qualifies luxury products as products of 'high quality'. The author shows that today, luxury is rather protected by positive law, particularly through the protection of the image of luxury brands, which is the key to their success. [...]