Block sales on Amazon & other news

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Block sale of luxury goods on Amazon

Luxury Brands Win Right to Block Sales of Goods on Amazon in Europe – WSJ – in its findings giving the right to block sales on Amazon, the European Court of Justice takes an expansive view of luxury brands  “The quality of luxury goods is not simply the result of their material characteristics, but also of the allure and prestigious image which bestows on them an aura of luxury,” the ECJ said. “That aura is an essential aspect of those goods in that it thus enables consumers to distinguish them from other similar goods.” – essentially luxury brands are experiential as much as they are selling products. That’s one of the key points to block sales and prevent Amazon getting into luxury 

Media

Ad Holding Companies to Rapidly Increase Spending With Amazon – WSJ – likely to hurt Google’s product search business hardest rather than Facebook and Istagram’s direct to consumer business.

2017 was the year digital ad spending finally beat TV – Recode – its about growth of digital rather than death of TV as a medium for advertisers

Paywall Will Be Wired’s ‘Hedge Against the Future’ – WSJ – I’ve been a Wired subscriber for a long time, not sure how well this move is going to do (paywall)

Retailing

Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index Reveals 48 Percent Growth in Parcel Volume since 2014 | Business Wire – the growth in parcel volume is an indicator of increasing online retail sales.

Technology

China hopes cold war nuclear energy tech will power warships, drones | South China Morning Post – I’d much prefer a Thorium powered DeLorean to a lithium powered Tesla

Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo | Gizmodo – interesting to see this sentiment from a gadget blog. Admittedly there is a lot to be concerned about

OptionPlan | Index Ventures – interesting data across startups in the US and EU