Milan’s Luxury Law Summit 2025

The Luxury Law Summit, held in Milan this October, celebrated the continuing evolution and deepening of the relationship between law and the luxury sector. The event brought together global brands, business leaders and legal teams through a unique international forum designed to explore the developing opportunities and challenges facing modern luxury.

By Ridhi Sofat

November 2025

Across every panel, one theme stood out: luxury is entering an era where design, technology, and legal strategy are becoming inseparable. A sector once driven by instinct and creative vision, now relies just as heavily on lawyers, data experts, and risk strategists.

Luxury today is being reshaped not by louder branding or bigger shows, but by smarter decision-making, and increasingly, by the way brands govern their identity and technology.

Legal Teams Are Becoming Strategic Partners

One of the clearest shifts discussed at the Summit is the evolving role of the General Counsel. Once backstage advisors brought in to review contracts or sign off compliance, legal teams are now embedded directly in strategic decision-making.

As one speaker said :

‘The role of lawyers is no longer to stay close to the business, but rather to sit at the board.’

Although this evolution isn’t uniform across markets, in regions like Italy, where regulatory authorities can halt product categories or marketing activity, legal input can determine whether revenue plans succeed or fail.

The job description has expanded. In-house lawyers now:

• manage cross-functional teams

• map operational risks

• help steer long-term brand direction

• shape partnership strategy

They’re also expected to demonstrate value. Prevention, avoiding class actions, reputational harm, or regulatory fines, is becoming a measurable performance metric - one that protects millions in brand equity.

An image from Fendi described the legal function as “a dune — solid yet fragile, always changing.”

In this sense, leadership now means knowing where legal work adds real value, when to push back and how to bring clarity to complexity. Today’s lawyers must be strategists, communicators and problem-solvers as well as legal technicians.

IP, Dupes and Brand Protection

“Dupe culture”, fuelled by TikTok, fast fashion, and mass retailers, was another major focus at the Summit. These imitation products often sit just inside the boundary of legality, mimicking the look and feel of luxury without crossing the threshold of counterfeit.

The challenge is both cultural and legal.

Brands are broadening what they protect, filing rights for:

• packaging structures

• bottle shapes

• textile patterns

• colour codes

• advertising language and product claims

  
  

Protection is expanding beyond logos to anything that signals brand identity.

But enforcement alone is not enough. As one participant noted:

“We must make consumers dream of the original, not the imitation.”

This shift is particularly evident in markets like Italy, where regulatory authorities can halt product categories or marketing activity, making legal input essential to revenue planning.

AI and The Future of Luxury Governance

The Summit closed with an increasingly urgent conversation: how luxury brands should govern AI. AI already influences much of the customer journey, from personalised recommendations to demand forecasting and counterfeit detection.

But it also introduces new risks:

• privacy and biometric data compliance

• bias in personalisation algorithms

• questions around IP ownership of AI-generated content

• misinformation or inaccurate AI-assisted customer service

• unregulated staff use of external AI

  
  

Consequently, the role of legal teams has now shifted. Legal teams are now writing internal AI policies, establishing cross-functional committees, and ensuring systems remain transparent and auditable. The goal is not to block AI but to use it responsibly.

The emerging consensus is clear: AI won’t replace legal judgement — it requires it.

A More Complex, More Connected Future

What the Milan Summit ultimately revealed is a luxury industry undergoing a quiet but important shift.

• Legal teams are becoming architects of strategy.

• Branding is becoming more subtle, but more governed.

• Dupe culture is pushing brands to elevate their distinctiveness.

• AI is forcing companies to rethink how they manage risk and creativity.

  
  

The legal function in luxury now blends ethics, strategy and creativity. Lawyers are no longer backstage advisors; they are co-authors of the business vision.

Luxury has always been about craft and symbolism. Today, it’s also about governance, foresight and precision.

Not louder. Not flashier.

Just smarter — and more intentional.

And that is what will define the future of the industry.