Family Hands

31 Dec 2024

The question

A common belief is that a few families own the big consumer brands, and that their owners put poor products on the shelf. Who holds each firm can be read in its reports; the second half is not a finding, and the story does not say it. Where a regulator or a court acted against a company, the story says what, but only for the cases in the sources we read. It is not a full list. No source here shows the owning families acting together.

34.76%The share of L’Oréal that its 2024 report counts for the Bettencourt Meyers family

31 Dec 2024

L’Oréal

The report counts the Bettencourt Meyers family at 34.76 per cent and Nestlé at 20.14. Most of the family’s part sits in two holding companies, Téthys with 152,514,292 shares and Financière L’Arcouest with 27,650,000, out of 534,312,021. Of its 16 directors, three come from the family, two are linked to Nestlé and seven are independent, by L’Oréal’s count.

34.76% and 20.14%The Bettencourt Meyers family’s and Nestlé’s shares of L’Oréal, 31 December 2024, by its own report

7 Dec 2021

One share, one vote

L’Oréal dropped double voting rights in 2004. In December 2021 it bought 4 per cent of its own shares from Nestlé, and the family’s stake rose past one third; the AMF waived a duty to bid for the rest, and the family undertook not to use votes above 33.33 per cent until the 2025 meeting. The family’s stake rose because L’Oréal’s share count fell, not because it bought, and directors tied to the family and to Nestlé did not vote on it. The 2004 agreement between family and Nestlé has expired: the report says they have not acted in concert since 21 March 2018.

29 Sep 2022

Ten votes a share

Estée Lauder has two kinds of common stock: Class A with one vote a share and Class B with ten. Its 2022 proxy puts the Lauder family at about 84 per cent of the votes, with one family company, LAL Family Corporation, at 54.1. Family members who are party to a stockholders’ agreement have agreed to vote for named director nominees. BlackRock’s 7.3 per cent of the Class A shares came to 1.1 per cent of the votes, and Vanguard’s 7.7 to 1.2.

About 84%The Lauder family’s share of the voting power of The Estée Lauder Companies, by its 2022 proxy

31 Dec 2024

The chain above LVMH

LVMH’s report counts the Arnault family group at 49.00 per cent of the capital and 64.81 of the votes at the end of 2024; Christian Dior SE alone holds 41.87 and 56.77. The gap is double voting rights on registered shares held more than three years. The 2024 report says no other holder reached 5 per cent; the 2025 annual report gives the family group 49.8 and 65.9. In September 2026 the family announced a plan to merge its holding companies, which FashionUnited puts at 50.33 and 66.27, to go to a Christian Dior meeting in December and followed by a cash offer for the shares it does not own.

49.00% of capital, 64.81% of votesThe Arnault family group’s share of LVMH at 31 December 2024, by LVMH’s report

7 Jan 2021

Sephora and Tiffany

Under the same chain sit the beauty retailer Sephora, which LVMH calls the world’s leading selective beauty retailer, and the jeweller Tiffany & Co. LVMH completed the Tiffany purchase on 7 January 2021, at $131.50 a share in cash. Bernard Arnault is LVMH’s chairman and chief executive, and its report lists him as general partner of Agache SCA and chairman of Christian Dior SE.

24 Oct 2010

Hermès answers

In late October 2010 LVMH announced a stake of 14.2 per cent in Hermès, rising to 17 through financial contracts, and said it did not want control but to be a long-term shareholder. Hermès replied that its family holding stayed united and that its form, a partnership limited by shares, guarantees long-term control. The stake later grew to between 22.6 and 23.1 per cent, by The Local and City AM; according to The Local, Hermès accused LVMH of trying to add it to its brands.

31 Dec 2025

H51

Hermès is a partnership limited by shares. Its report says the family group controls it through Émile Hermès SAS, the active partner, and that H51 is the majority limited partner, with 54.3 per cent of the shares and about 64 of the votes; with H2 and other family members the group holds 66.7 per cent. H51 also holds a priority right, in force since 13 December 2011, to buy shares from family members who together hold about 12.3 per cent. The report says H51 and H2 are held only by family members and, to its knowledge, no other holder is above 5 per cent.

54.3% of shares, about 64% of votesH51’s share of Hermès International at 31 December 2025, by Hermès’s report

3 Sep 2014

A fine and a truce

On 25 June 2013 the AMF’s enforcement committee fined LVMH €8 million: each swap deal alone broke no disclosure rule, but taken together the AMF found they were a breach. LVMH first called the fine “totally unjustified” and said it would appeal; in September 2013 it dropped the appeal, saying the AMF had confirmed it never breached ownership thresholds or engaged in insider trading or market manipulation. The finding concerned disclosure to the market, not any product. On 3 September 2014 LVMH and Hermès ended all disputes: LVMH shares out its Hermès shares, and Groupe Arnault keeps about 8.5 per cent and promises not to buy more for five years.

31 Dec 2024

Del Vecchio’s holding

Leonardo Del Vecchio started Luxottica in the Alpine town of Agordo in 1961 and chaired EssilorLuxottica until his death in 2022. His family’s holding company Delfin held 32.26 per cent of the shares at the end of 2024, with 31.4 per cent of the votes; the public held 63.14 and employees and partners 4.43, S&P reports. A company notice says voting rights are capped at 31 per cent for any shareholder under a formula in its by-laws; we could not reconcile that with S&P’s 31.4.

32.26% of shares, 31.4% of votesDelfin’s share of EssilorLuxottica at 31 December 2024, by S&P Global Ratings

31 Dec 2025

Two that do not list

Chanel and Mars are described as privately and family owned, and we found no filing that lists their holders; both rest here on press. Reuters, on RTE, says Chanel is owned by the brothers Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, and ConfectioneryNews reports Mars as family-owned across five generations. In December 2025 the European Commission approved Mars’s $35.9 billion purchase of Kellanova without conditions. It had found both already enjoyed some market power, but said the evidence did not support a finding that the deal would raise Mars’s bargaining power over retailers.

31 Dec 2025

No family at the top

Shiseido’s April 2026 report names no controlling shareholder: its largest names are two Japanese trust-bank accounts holding for others (17.10 and 5.13 per cent) and the Government of Norway at 5.44. Unilever’s 2025 report names three holders above 3 per cent at 31 December 2025: BlackRock 8.5, Vanguard 5.4 and Wellington 3.1. Procter & Gamble’s 2025 proxy lists Vanguard at 9.60 and BlackRock at 6.65, on filings from December 2023. The funds hold for their clients; see Who Owns BlackRock and Vanguard.

31 Mar 2026

Richemont’s B shares

Richemont has as many unlisted B shares as listed A shares, but each B share has a tenth of the par value: the B shares are 9.1 per cent of the equity and control 50 per cent of the votes. All are held by Compagnie Financière Rupert, and the board must approve any transfer. Johann Rupert chairs Richemont and is general managing partner of that holding company; Richemont’s page does not list the other partners.

10.18% of capital, 50.60% of votesCompagnie Financière Rupert’s share of Richemont at 31 March 2026, by Richemont

18 Dec 2014

No pact among the families, but a price decision against companies

No source we read shows the owning families acting together. L’Oréal’s report says its family and Nestlé, a company, have not acted in concert since 2018, and LVMH’s says that, to its knowledge, no agreement covers even 0.5 per cent of its shares. Companies are another matter. In December 2014 the French competition authority fined makers of personal-care goods, L’Oréal, Unilever and Procter & Gamble among them, for coordinating their policy towards supermarkets and their price increases from 2003 to 2006. L’Oréal was fined €189.5 million and contested it; the Paris Court of Appeal changed the decision in part in 2016, and its ruling of 18 June 2020 left L’Oréal’s fine at that figure. Unilever and P&G did not contest the facts and were fined too.

22 Jul 2021

What regulators and courts did

These are the cases in the sources we read, not a full list. Luxottica was fined €125.2 million in 2021, mostly for pressing opticians to keep its “recommended” prices; the Paris Court of Appeal upheld it in December 2024, and the company, which calls the fine unfounded, went to the Cour de cassation in January 2025, with no ruling in what we read. Essilor was fined €81 million in 2022 and is also at the Cour de cassation; Turkey fined EssilorLuxottica TRY 492 million in 2023, under appeal. Chanel (€130,000) and LVMH (€500,000, no contest) were fined separately over their own licences, and the authority judged the damage very limited. Last, in 2014 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission proposed a consent order with L’Oréal USA over claims for two products: an allegation settled, not a finding.

2019

The Giant Three

Lucian Bebchuk and Scott Hirst found the Big Three’s average stake in S&P 500 companies rose from 5.2 per cent in 1998 to 20.5 in 2017. If trends continue, they estimate, the Big Three could cast about 34 per cent of the votes in a decade and as much as 40 in two. Their worry is deference, not overreach: they argue index funds have incentives to defer to managers. Their scenario covers U.S. companies without a controlling shareholder, which is not the Lauder, Arnault or Hermès case.

About 25%The Big Three’s share of the votes cast in S&P 500 director elections in 2018, by Bebchuk and Hirst

26 May 2021

Engine No. 1 at Exxon

A fund with about 0.02 per cent of ExxonMobil put up four board nominees against the company’s slate. At the 26 May 2021 meeting three were elected, by ExxonMobil’s count of 2 June. BlackRock, with 6.7 per cent, voted for three of the four, saying it was concerned about Exxon’s strategic direction; Vanguard, with 8.2, voted for two. A law firm’s account credits investment funds and pension funds together, among them State Street, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, and says it remains to be seen what the new board will do.

30 Jun 2026

Who votes the fund’s shares

BlackRock launched Voting Choice in 2022 so eligible clients can steer the votes on shares held for them, and says $923 billion of the $3.96 trillion eligible was committed by 30 June 2026. Vanguard’s voting report for the year to 30 June 2025 shows its funds backed 97 per cent of 23,631 U.S. management director proposals. It says the funds do not dictate strategy and neither nominate board members nor file shareholder proposals.

$3.96 trillionIndex equity assets BlackRock says are eligible for Voting Choice, as of 30 June 2026

Sep 2022

Do shared owners soften competition?

In 2018 Azar, Schmalz and Tecu reported U.S. airline fares 3 to 7 per cent higher because competitors share owners. In 2021 Azar and Xavier Vives reported that common ownership by the Big Three went with lower fares, and in 2022 Dennis, Gerardi and Schenone reported the link comes from market shares; the first authors replied. All of it is about airlines. No study in this story tests the question for beauty, eyewear or jewellery, and Who Owns BlackRock and Vanguard tells the debate in full.

3% to 7%A disputed estimate of airline fares, 2001 to 2014, by José Azar, Martin Schmalz and Isabel Tecu, 2018

29 Sep 2022

What holders do and do not do

Estée Lauder is a Delaware company, where the board runs the company and holders vote on directors and some other matters. Vanguard says its funds do not nominate directors; Engine No. 1 won seats on a board, not a say over decisions. At Estée Lauder in 2022 one family held about 84 per cent of the votes and BlackRock and Vanguard 1.1 and 1.2. Owners who also run a firm, as Bernard Arnault runs LVMH, do direct it. Filings show who holds and who votes. They do not show who decides what goes in a jar, and we did not look for that record.