China may become the world’s biggest luxury market in some years but cultural challenges to win customers’ hearts for certain types of products remain, industry executives said this week.

Champagne house Taittinger said it could make high-end sparkling wine in China but the market was not ready for it yet…

… while Lamborghini said the country’s tradition of luxury chauffeurs, bigger than sports driving, made expansion there a challenge.

Beginning June 15, 2009, Google is relaxing its policy on use of trademarks in ad copy text.

In the past, Google has restricted the use of brand names in ad text and was willing to take action to prevent it which allowed you to authorize specific resellers to use your brand while restricting the remainder of the market.

Now Google will allow previously disapproved ads to run on Google.com and the content network in the USA, without the need for approval by the trademark owner.

LVMH, the world’s leading luxury products group has completed a minority investment in Edun, the ethical fashion company owned by Ali Hewson and her husband Bono, U2 lead singer and activist.

Edun is a brand of socially conscious fashion for men and women.

The Company’s mission is to create beautiful clothing and sustainable trade with partners in the developing world.

Luxury goods group LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton has denied it is in negotiations to sell wines and spirits division Moët Hennessy.

A report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper suggested that liquor company Diageo was considering a €12bn ($15.5bn) takeover of LVMH’s drinks arm, which includes brands such as Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot champagnes, Hennessy cognac and Glenmorangie Scotch whisky.

Diageo’s links with LVMH go back 22 years, when Guinness - one of the groups which went to create Diageo - struck up a joint venture.

Louis Vuitton opened its Champs-Elysees store Sunday amid an ongoing national battle over the supposed day of rest.

French law only allows retailers that sell sporting, recreational, leisure and culture items in heavily trafficked tourist areas to open Sunday. The law is aimed to support “dominical rest.”

Louis Vuitton has argued that the store features a cultural element. The French Confederation of Christian Workers, or CFTC, and a federation of clothing and accessories vendors filed a complaint against the retailer.

An article in WWD last week said that LVMH will be closing down the retail operations of eLuxury over the next six months. They are going to make it into an online magazine focusing on the “world of luxury”.

The official reason is “(…) because many of the brands it sells have developed their own online presences“.

According to The luxe chronicles, there might be another reason : Despite having the kind of unprecedented access to some of the most desirable luxury and fashion merchandise in the world and the kind of financial heft and expertise only a luxury empire of LVMH’s magnitude can deploy, they never became the premiere destination for online luxury shopping they were once destined to become.