De Beers

The De Beers Group is a Johannesburg- and London-based diamond mining and trading corporation. It has historically held a near-total monopoly in the diamond trade, although recent Israeli interests have captured 20% of the market. In 1994 De Beers was charged by the United States Justice Department with antitrust violations for conspiring to fix prices for industrial diamonds. On 14 July 2004 De Beers pleaded guilty to the charges and paid a $10 million fine. The plea has enabled De Beers to trade directly in the United States diamond market after years of acting through intermediaries. The US diamond market is the largest in the world, purchasing approximately $500 million in industrial stones and $60 billion in diamond jewelry annually.

Retail joint venture

In 2001, De Beers launched a joint venture with luxury goods company LVMH in order to establish De Beers as a retail brand. The joint venture, called De Beers LV, has a license from De Beers SA to use the De Beers brand name in a retail environment. The venture has since opened two stores, one in London and a second in Tokyo. Following the settling of the United States anti-trust case, De Beers said that it planned to open a store in New York. Before the venture was allowed to begin, the EU competition commission launched an investigation into whether the venture would give De Beers too great a control over the rough diamond market. An initial one-month probe determined that a longer investigation was necessary. The commission eventually allowed the joint venture to go ahead in July 2001.

Related Topics:
2001 - Luxury good - LVMH - London - Tokyo - New York

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Their first retail store in the United States opened on June 23, 2005, though the opening was picketed by protesters from Survival International, who claimed a link between the mining of diamonds and the genocide of Gana and Gwi bushmen by the Botswana government. Gloria Steinem was at the forefront of the protests, urging American consumers to boycott the store.

Related Topics:
United States - June 23 - 2005 - Protest - Survival International - Genocide - Gana - Gwi - Bushmen - Botswana - Gloria Steinem

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