Daily Links

1. Beyond Saving: In China, Young Shoppers Are Locked Out of Luxury. Over a period of four years, the price of luxury goods has almost doubled. But with their salaries stagnant, young consumers are now forced to decide between indulgence and financial stability. – Read More on Sixth Tone

2. Still Game whisky wins Jack Daniel’s trademark battle. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) found in favour of Jack and Victor and said the trademark could proceed to registration. – Read More on the BBC

3. AI in retail: Smarter stores, smarter product design. Analysts say the retail sector’s spending on AI in 2023 will outpace all others except banking. A 40% adoption rate is projected to double by 2025, making retail the industry most heavily invested in intelligent technology. –Read More on Venture Beat

4. A.I. Needs an International Watchdog, ChatGPT Creators Say. Tech companies have spent billions of dollars on A.I., amid the rising concerns about its potential to match human reasoning and destroy jobs. Goldman Sachs estimated recently that A.I. could expose 300M full-time jobs to automation. – Read More on the New York Times

5. A timeline of Amazon’s efforts to curb counterfeit selling: An important part of Amazon’s strategy is expanding the work they do with brands, other third-parties and different coalitions through initiatives like the Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange announced last month. – Read More on Modern Retail

6. Nike CEO John Donahoe says breaking up with China would be ‘disastrous’ amid rising geopolitical tensions: Donahoe said China – the sneaker giant’s third-biggest market by revenue – is vital to Nike. He added it is important to adhere to the country’s local standards, while not violating any “global rules,” such as human rights violations. – Read More on CNBC

1. The surprising reason luxury goods are booming: The psychology of why we buy designer products also eschews typical economic sense, because the motivation to buy is about status. The higher the price, the more status you’re theoretically buying. – Read More on Vox

2. Luxury goods stocks tumble as Deutsche Bank says they’re no longer a slam dunk. Blame the U.S. “Slowing to negative growth year-over-year in the U.S. is a building concern, especially given signs of softening demand from more economically sensitive aspirational consumers.” – Read More on MarketWatch

3. The Long Fight Over “Taco Tuesday.” Both Gregory’s and Taco John’s try to keep Taco Tuesday to themselves. They send cease-and-desist letters to other restaurants. Gregory said his family’s restaurant has sent around 40; Taco John’s said it doesn’t track the number of letters it has sent. – Read More on the WSJ

4. TikTok files lawsuit to block Montana ban. “We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” a TikTok spokesperson said. – Read More on Yahoo

5. China’s Big-Spending, Picky Youth Are Global Luxury’s Lifeline: While special events for top-tier clients are common in fashion hubs across the world, what set this one apart was the attendees’ youth, with almost all of them born from 1990 onward. – Read More on Bloomberg

6. Meta slapped with record $1.3 billion EU fine over data privacy: Meta has been fined a record-breaking €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by European Union regulators for violating EU privacy laws by transferring the personal data of Facebook users to servers in the United States. – Read More on CNN

1. Prada ‘optimistic’ of Milan listing, heir of fashion group says: “The biggest risk to luxury is too much social tension between rich and poor,” he said of China as well as western markets. – Read More on the FT

2. Luxury goods boom: why prices are rising. Global economic and political factors are driving price rises but there’s another reason: brands know they can get away with it because post-Covid revenge spending continues unabated. – Read More on Spear’s

3. After Nike’s virtual sneaker drop, NFT cynicism is making way for intrigue among marketers: Nike is reaching out to self-identified fans with token-gated content and exclusive experiences in NFT form. It is not “selling a jpeg” or appealing to speculators. – Read More on Modern Retail

4. Luxury brands are using blockchain to enhance the buying process. Cartier uses Aura’s blockchain technology to confirm repair transactions and share the condition of its pieces with owners. – Read More on Retail Insight

5. New Zealand Honey Producers Fail to Secure Manuka Trade Mark. New Zealand’s Intellectual Property Office has declined an application to register “Manuka Honey” as a trade mark, delivering a legal victory to Australian producers who have argued the product is not unique to New Zealand. – Read More on Bloomberg

6. RETRO READ: Pricey Beauty Products, Organized Crime & a Global Legal Battle: The $220M+ Manuka Honey Industry. Like Champagne, Porto wine, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which are covered by Protected Geographical Status laws, Manuka honey should be subject to protected status, they argue. – Read More on TFL

1. Why Some Companies Keep Getting Away With Higher Prices: In the past, companies when they would raise prices, they would sort of do it very quietly. A lot of companies tend to be secretive about their strategy and their pricing and they don’t want to share with competitors what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t want consumers to feel like they’re being ripped off. – Read More on the WSJ

2. German Artist Michael Moebius Wins $120M in a ‘Monumental’ Lawsuit Against Hundreds of Foreign Counterfeiters: Moebius sued 399 separate companies based in China and other foreign nations that he claimed had violated his copyright by selling “counterfeit versions” of his images. – Read More on Artnet

3. TikTok users file lawsuit to block Montana ban: Five TikTok users in Montana who create content posted on the short-video app filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the state’s new ban on the Chinese-owned platform. – Read More on Reuters

4. Who Is Going to Regulate AI? Whether Congress, the EU, China, or even U.S. states or courts take the lead will determine both the speed and trajectory of AI’s transformation of the global economy, potentially protecting some industries or limiting the ability of all companies to use the tech to interact directly with consumers. – Read More on HBR

5. BeReal v BeReal: Trademark battle set to go to tribunal. A small business owner who is in a naming rights row with a French social media app that has the same name has hit out at its “threatening” conduct. – Read More on BBC

6. Creatives compete in first AI fashion week. How will it impact the industry? “We had over 400 submissions from around the world. And what was interesting for us, there were many people who had submitted amazing collections that you could imagine being on any runway in any of the major cities.” – Read More on Marketplace

1. Supreme Court sidesteps ruling on scope of internet company immunity from lawsuits over user content: The court in a brief unsigned opinion did not decide the legal question of whether liability protections enshrined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act safeguard YouTube’s alleged conduct. – Read More on NBC

2. Burberry’s Makeover Is Long and Slow: The brand’s sales are weakening in the U.S. Most high-end brands are experiencing the same trend: Bank of America analysts expect U.S. luxury sales to fall by 10% in 2023. – Read More on the WSJ

3. Lightspeed CEO breaks down Q4 earnings, sector growth, luxury spending, outlook: “We’re seeing very strong demand for apparel, jewelry, and especially a strong demand for anything related to experimental hospitality.” – Read More on Yahoo

4. Politicians Need to Learn How AI Works—Fast: There is a significant risk of regulatory capture if major AI and tech companies have too much influence over the direction that regulators take. – Read More on Wired

5. Google, Meta, and Amazon’s next frontier: AI-generated ads. Amazon is working on a way to generate photos and videos for companies looking to create advertising campaigns on the platform. The company is also rumored to be building a conversational AI search tool. – Read More on the Verge

6. How luxury giant LVMH built a recession-proof empire: Through Arnault, LVMH plays “the long-term game,” said Oliver Chen, managing director at TD Cowen. That keeps the company’s brands in good shape in terms of integrity, perception, and relevance. – Read More on CNBC