Hermes Anti Trust Birkin Lawsuit Dismissed Pending Appeal

 

Readers of this little blog will be well familiar with the amount of times we have discussed Veblen goods, so should by now clearly understand them as a concept.  The Birkin bag from Hermes is one of these, as demonstrated by the fact the image in this article is a screen capture from a Wikipedia article on the product.

Another point of interest in the Birkin story is its lack of availability.  Like steel Rolex watches, Ferrari's and Cristal champagne, the supply is deliberately restricted to increase demand.  A classic Veblen good tactic.  However, a number of consumers took considerable.e offence to this, and filed a lawsuit in America alleging Anti Trust.

However, in a 17 September 2025 Judgement, the Northern District court of California ruled that this action had no merit, and indeed took the decision to do so with prejudice, debarring the Claimant from further action.  

This doesn't prevent them from appealing, and the Claimant has done so.  However, it is a significant victory, and well demonstrates that choosing to throttle your stock to increase demand doesn't necessarily qualify as anything other than a smart business decision.

Our view on this is simple.  Hermes is one of the last true luxury brands,  While luxury conceptually can be subjective, and mean things to an individual such as "quality time", Hermes does remain however an institution that manages to retain the aura of luxury despite changing times, and is evergreen in that.  Its sales practices might be slightly suspect, but ultimately, that's part of the allure.