In 1929 a pair of sunglasses was a ten-cent buy on a boardwalk, and in the 1930s a glare-cutter for pilots.
Today one group, EssilorLuxottica, owns Ray-Ban and Oakley, makes frames for luxury houses under licence and runs stores. In 2012 CBS reported that Luxottica also owned a U.S. vision plan, EyeMed.
The history comes from newspapers and magazines, named in each scene. The later scenes come from regulators’ decisions, court records, company reports and eye-health bodies. Where accounts disagree, the story says who said what. The words “scam” and “monopoly” appear only where a court, a regulator or a named person used them. The numbers here are about different things (sunglasses, frames, prescription glasses, retail stores), and each scene says which.
1961
The Associated Press wrote that Leonardo Del Vecchio’s father died before he was born, and that the youngest of four children started in a Milan orphanage. In his twenties he worked as an apprentice making parts for eyeglass frames. In 1961 he moved to Agordo, a village in the Dolomites offering free land to bring jobs, and started Luxottica.
From a start in a Milan orphanage, Del Vecchio went on to become one of Italy’s richest industrialists.
1929
In 1919 Sam Foster, who had come from Austria, left a comb factory in Leominster, Massachusetts, to start his own. When short hair ended the comb trade, he turned to sunglasses. In 1929 Foster Grant sold its first pairs at a Woolworth’s on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Yankee magazine says that other American makers then sold sunglasses only as eye protection, and Foster Grant sold them as fashion.
10 centsWhat Foster Grant charged for its first sunglasses, sold at a Woolworth’s on the Atlantic City boardwalk, 1929
They were just 10 cents each.
1937
Slate reports that in the 1920s the U.S. Army Air Corps asked for anti-glare goggles for high-altitude flying, and Bausch & Lomb of Rochester, New York, delivered metal-framed, teardrop-lens sunglasses with a green tint. In 1937, Slate says, the company renamed them Ray-Ban and sold them to the public. Other accounts give other years for the pilots’ request, so those dates are not settled here.
Bausch & Lomb rebranded the Anti-Glares as Ray-Ban sunglasses (so-called because they banish rays) in 1937 and started selling them to the general public.
1937
Edwin Land, who became interested in polarized light as a Harvard freshman, invented a way to make polarizers cheaply. Polaroid Corporation was organized in 1937, and his memoir lists polarizing sunglasses among the products his sheets made possible. Polarized lenses cut glare off water and roads. They are a different thing from blocking ultraviolet light, as the last scenes show.
The light polarizers Land invented made it economically possible to make use of the phenomenon of light polarization in products as diverse as camera filters, scientific instruments, train and airplane windows, three-dimensional movies, and polarizing sunglasses.
1965
By the mid-1960s fans wanted the sunglasses their favourite stars wore, and Foster Grant’s “Who’s That Behind Those Foster Grants?” ads put famous faces behind them. Slate adds that Ray-Ban Aviators got a push when General Douglas MacArthur was photographed in them in the Philippines in World War II, and again when Tom Cruise wore them in Top Gun in 1986. Yankee magazine reported in 2019 that Foster Grant was owned by Essilor, one half of the company in this story.
Foster Grant catapulted quickly became a household name with their iconic advertising campaign, “Who’s That Behind Those Foster Grants?” featuring Hollywood stars like Jane Fonda, Woody Allen, and Peter Sellers, among many others.
28 Jun 1999
Luxottica already owned LensCrafters, bought in 1995 with U.S. Shoe. In June 1999 it paid $640 million in cash for all of Bausch & Lomb’s sunglass lines, Ray-Ban, Revo, Arnette and Killer Loop included. Its chief executive in 2012 told 60 Minutes the company stopped selling Ray-Bans for about a year to refurbish them. CBS reported that pairs once $29 at drugstores can now cost $150 and more.
$29 to $150What Ray-Bans cost at a drugstore when Luxottica bought the brand, against what CBS said they can cost in 2012. Dollars of different years; CBS gave no source for either price
And made them upscale: today those $29 pairs can cost 150 and more, and Ray-Ban is the top-selling sunglass brand in the world.
2001
In 2001 Luxottica bought Sunglass Hut, the largest sunglass chain in the world, and cut the Oakley sunglasses sold there. Oakley sued, accusing Luxottica of selling knockoffs, the Orange County Business Journal reports. A German trade paper reported a California court granted an injunction on 3 December 2001, and that Luxottica resumed carrying Oakley under a new contract that month while the suit was open; the Journal says the two settled by late 2001. A Wall Street Journal columnist told 60 Minutes there was “a dispute about pricing”, and Luxottica’s chief executive said both sides saw it was better to go along. In 2007 Luxottica bought Oakley for $2.1 billion.
In the early 2000s, Luxottica roiled Oakley by cutting the number of the company’s sunglasses sold at Sunglass Hut just after Luxottica bought the mall chain in 2001.
2012
The 60 Minutes script lists the brands Luxottica made under licence: Prada, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany and Bulgari. It sold them through LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, Sears Optical and Sunglass Hut, and, CBS said, owned EyeMed, the second-largest U.S. vision plan. The FTC wrote in 2018 that Luxottica was the largest U.S. optical retailer and the second-largest managed vision care provider.
Luxottica also owns the nation's second largest vision-care plan: EyeMed, covering eye exams and glasses.
7 Oct 2012
Introducing the 2014 rebroadcast of its October 2012 report, CBS said one company “controls a big chunk of the business”. A Wall Street Journal columnist, Brett Arends, said “one company has excessive dominance in the market” and that a luxury brand persuades people to pay “$200 for a product that cost $30 to make”, about seven times; LensCrafters customers, CBS said, paid about $300 for frames and lenses. Asked if it was all worth it, Luxottica’s 2012 chief executive, Andrea Guerra, named Walmart, Costco and Warby Parker as competitors, said there is “a lot of work behind” glasses, and added: “Everything is worth what people are ready to pay.” Luxottica’s filed gross profit was 63.4% of revenue in early 2025, for everything it sells, not a markup per pair.
Up to 20 timesThe only cost-to-price figure in this story. CBS said designer-branded glasses can sell for up to 20 times what they cost to make, and gave no source. Luxottica would not give its markup. CBS script, 2012, rebroadcast 2014
Luxottica wouldn't tell us their markup, but glasses like these can sell for up to 20 times what they cost to make.
Oct 2012
20/20 Magazine reported that a letter from Andrea Dorigo, head of Luxottica USA, to its customer accounts, mostly opticians, disputed three claims it said the report made: that Luxottica holds a monopoly, that eyewear is overpriced, and that it takes advantage of customers. CBS’s script does not use the word monopoly. As 20/20 quotes the letter, “only a fraction of the 150 million frames and sunglasses sold every year” are made by Luxottica, U.S. consumers have “a huge selection” in all price ranges, and it has “never tried to abuse” its leadership position. 20/20 gives no place or year for the 150 million, and this story has not read the letter itself.
“This time it is not just about Luxottica, it is about all of us and the future of our industry.”
2018
In 2018 Essilor, the French lens maker, and Luxottica combined as EssilorLuxottica. The European Commission wrote that the two “mainly sell complementary optical products, which do not compete with each other.” Delfin, the Del Vecchio family holding, held 32.26% of the shares at the end of 2024, and the public 63.14%, according to S&P Global Ratings. Voting rights are capped at 31% for any shareholder by a formula in the by-laws.
Essilor is the largest supplier of ophthalmic lenses, both worldwide and in Europe. Luxottica is the largest supplier of eyewear, both worldwide and in Europe, and has well-known brands in its portfolio such as Ray-Ban and Oakley.
1 Mar 2018
On 1 March 2018 the European Commission cleared the merger with no conditions, finding Luxottica’s strongest brands “generally not essential products for opticians”, consistent with “less than 20%” of frames in Europe. The same day the FTC voted unanimously to close its investigation, saying Luxottica’s national share of U.S. optical retail is “less than 10 percent” and that none of its economic models supported higher prices. Both asked a forward-looking question: whether joining a lens maker and a frame maker would let the new company squeeze rivals. Neither looked at the retail pricing that France judged next.
Nearly 4,000Opticians the European Commission heard from in its market test of the merger
We've received feedback from nearly 4,000 opticians in a market test in Europe that Essilor and Luxottica would not gain market power to harm competition.
19 Nov 2018
Luxottica agreed to buy Barberini, a maker of glass sunglass lenses and glass lens blanks, and the Italian authority examined three markets: wholesale sunglasses, glass sunglass lenses, and glass blanks. In sunglasses it said Barberini held well under 1%, though it put Luxottica in the 60 to 65% range of Italian wholesale sunglasses by value in 2017 and 40 to 45% in Europe, ranges it published instead of exact figures. Its worry was glass lenses and blanks, where it said Luxottica would become the only maker of high-quality glass lenses; Luxottica argued for a wider market, and the authority said that would not change its analysis. On 19 November 2018 it authorised the deal on conditions.
The Italian antitrust authority (AGCM) announced it opened a probe into Luxottica’s acquisition of top sunglasses maker Barberini.
22 Jul 2021
The French authority found that between 2005 and 2014 Luxottica sent retailers recommended prices, had retailers help watch each other, and delayed deliveries or withdrew approval from stores that did not follow; it fined Luxottica about €125 million, and LVMH and Chanel far less over online sales bans. It put Luxottica at 45% of French sunglasses by value in 2011 and 21% of prescription frames, and judged the damage moderate. EssilorLuxottica called the fine highly disproportionate and without foundation; the Paris Court of Appeal rejected its appeal on 12 December 2024, and it appealed again on 13 January 2025. This was about past pricing, not about the merger, so it does not contradict Brussels or Washington, which asked a different question.
€125 millionFine on Luxottica by the French competition authority, 22 July 2021, almost all for limiting opticians' pricing freedom. Upheld on appeal, 12 December 2024
the Group was sentenced to a €125 million fine by the French Competition Authority on July 22, 2021 on the account of cartel practices.
2025
The company’s own report lists fines under appeal: €81 million on Essilor by the French authority in October 2022 for treating online sellers of certain prescription lenses differently, upheld in Paris in December 2024, and 492 million Turkish lira in August 2023 for breaking an exclusivity commitment and abusive bundling. It also lists inquiries with no finding: Greece since 2022, and a 2024 Civil Investigative Demand from the FTC. The company disputes these and says it is cooperating.
in 2024, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a Civil Investigative Demand to Group subsidiaries in connection to business practices in the optical industry.
23 Mar 2021
In March 2021 the Commission cleared EssilorLuxottica’s purchase of the optical chain GrandVision on conditions, saying that with a bigger retail footprint it could have degraded rival opticians’ access to its brands. In October 2024 the group closed a $1.5 billion cash purchase of Supreme from VF Corporation. Supreme makes streetwear, not eyewear.
About 350 storesOptical stores EssilorLuxottica had to sell in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands for EU approval of GrandVision, 2021
The approval is conditional on the divestment of some of EssilorLuxottica’s optical retail businesses in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy – totalling around 350 stores – to address competition concerns in the optical retail market.
2025
EssilorLuxottica and Meta Platforms make Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta smart glasses together. Bloomberg reported in July 2025 that Meta had bought just under 3% of EssilorLuxottica for about €3 billion, and in December a board member said it holds at least 3% and has not asked for a board seat. Neither company had commented. A stake is a share of a company, not control of it.
At least 3%Meta's stake in EssilorLuxottica, as a board member told reporters in December 2025. Bloomberg had reported just under 3% in July
A member of the Franco-Italian group's board of directors confirmed yesterday, December 9, that Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—holds at least 3% of the capital of the high-end eyewear and frames specialist.
26 Sep 2025
Warby Parker’s history page says one company dominates the eyewear industry and keeps prices “artificially high”; it names no company, and the copy used here is an archive copy. On 26 September 2025 a U.S. judge granted EssilorLuxottica’s motion to dismiss two class actions by buyers who accused it of monopolizing eyewear, finding the markets they described not plausibly defined. The ruling tested the claims, not proof, and gave plaintiffs until 17 October 2025 to file again; the company called the claims a contention that building a successful company is unlawful. This story did not check the docket after that date.
It is not illegal for a business to be enormous, and enormously successful, so long as it does not engage in anticompetitive conduct.
2022
The National Eye Institute calls sunglasses and a hat the simplest and safest way to protect eyes from UV, and says prolonged exposure modifies lens proteins, leading to cataract. The American Academy of Ophthalmology says UV damage can lead to cataracts, macular degeneration and other conditions; the NEI says only that some studies link UV to macular degeneration, and WHO that UV may be involved. WHO advises wraparound sunglasses with 99 to 100% UV-A and UV-B protection. None of these sources measures how much disease sunglasses prevent. This is information, not medical advice.
About 10%Share of cataract blindness that may be due to UV exposure, of 15 million people blind from cataracts worldwide, WHO estimate
Worldwide, it is estimated that 15 million people are blind due to cataracts; of these, some 10% may be due to exposure to UVR.
2026
The FDA requires impact-resistant lenses but says that does not make them shatterproof. Its 1998 guidance names no required UV level, treating the ANSI and ISO standards as voluntary, but a false UV claim makes a pair unlawful; the NEI says instead that the rules set minimums and retailers must state UV protection, so the two do not match. The AAO says polarization is not UV protection, and the NEI warns against assuming price means protection. A 2019 lab test of 28 sunglasses and lens blanks found filtering did not track price or advertised claims, and a small 2014 Vancouver test of 35 pairs found 11% over a UV limit. Not known: whether UV protection fades with age, which the AAO says is unclear.
claims made by the manufacturer in the labeling for their sunglasses that claim they are constructed of lenses that block 100% UVA, UVB & UVC if such statements are untrue with respect to the sunglasses in question