Fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault accused of stranglehold over French business press

He is known as the “wolf in cashmere” – the owner of the world’s biggest luxury group whose brands including Louis Vuitton , Dior and Tiffany have made him one of the world’s richest people. But Bernard Arnault , a close friend of Donald Trump, is under fire from journalists’ unions in France for buying up almost all the country’s business and economic press. Reporters Without Borders said Arnault had a “stranglehold” on the main business titles in France after his LVMH group bought the centrist business weekly Challenges . LVMH, whose brands include fashion, perfumes, champagne and spirits, has an array of business publications including the leading economic daily paper, Les Echos, and the business information service L’Agefi. A Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo. The luxury brand has helped make Bernard Arnault one of the world’s richest people. Photograph: Andrzej Iwańczuk/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Reporters Without Borders and journalists’ unions have filed two different complaints over the purchase of Challenges. France’s council of state is considering whether authorities failed to properly examine the scope of LVMH’s business media ownership, and the competition watchdog is considering union arguments that the group “abused its dominant position” by acquiring Challenges. “This is a textbook example of the loopholes in French law which fail to keep media ownership in check,” said Laure Chauvel, the head of the France-Italy desk at Reporters Without Borders. …