⚠ The Resale & Grey MarketLow threat

The ambition to control distribution end-to-end runs into a reality it cannot fully govern: a large and rising share of luxury goods now circulates through channels LVMH does not own. The booming second-hand and resale market moves genuine product at prices the brand does not set; grey-market and parallel-import sellers arbitrage price differences across countries; and counterfeits shadow the whole thing. Each puts the brand into the world on terms other than the brand's own, undercutting the carefully staged, full-price, authenticated experience LVMH works to guarantee — and the digital age makes them all more accessible and harder to police.

LVMH keeps firm control of its primary distribution and fights the rest with enforcement and technology, and a healthy resale market can even signal a brand's enduring value. But complete control is unattainable, and the share of luxury changing hands outside the authorized channel is a slow, structural erosion of the distribution moat — one that grows as heritage pieces from 1854 onward circulate¹. Low-to-moderate, and permanent.