Susan Scafidi, director of Fordham Law’s Fashion Law Institute, spoke to Women’s Wear Daily about the likelihood of an American Louis Vuitton-Moët-Hennessy in the wake of the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction in the Tapestry-Capri merger case.
Susan Scafidi, founder and director of Fordham Law School’s Fashion Law Institute, said the first sentence of Judge Jennifer Rochon’s ruling said it all — “Antitrust has come into fashion.”
Over an eight-day hearing last month, the FTC argued that if the deal were to go through, Tapestry, with Coach, Kate Spade and Michael Kors, would dominate the “accessible luxury” market and be able to raise prices by 17 percent, with a $365 million annual impact on consumers.
In granting the injunction, Scafidi said the court agreed with the argument, but added that the “conclusion seems at odds with the vagaries of fashion trends and the difficulty of predicting consumer demand in fashion.”
“Whatever the ultimate result for Tapestry and Capri, it seems that the possibility of creating an American LVMH is now as remote as bipartisan unity after the coming election,” she said.
Read “What Next After FTC Blocks Tapestry’s $8.5B Acquisition of Capri?” on Women’s Wear Daily.