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World Service,09 Jul 2018,17 mins

A Spectacular Merger

Business Daily

Available for over a year

Two companies dominate the global eyewear industry - and now they are merging into a glasses behemoth. What does it mean for the bespectacled public? Manuela Saragosa investigates the story behind these two anonymous giants - Italian fashion frames designer Luxottica, and French lens-maker Essilor - with the help of American eyewear retail pioneer E Dean Martin, and Gordon Ilett of the UK's Association of Optometrists. And she asks the European Commission why they were happy to wave through their merger earlier this year. Producer: Laurence Knight. Producer: Laurence Knight (Picture: Glasses model frames - black silhouettes isolated on white; Credit: Alxyzt/Getty Images)

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