Benetton Group S.p.A.

Benetton Group S.p.A. maintains 27 store locations in Iran, including 9 in Tehran and 8 in Lavasan. (Company Website)

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"The ever-daring fashion house just announced winners in its competition to design its outpost in Iran. Benetton's decades-old tradition of pinching cultural mores at the tenderest spots is still healthy: Last week, they announced the winning design in a competition to design two Benetton buildings in Tehran. This sounds innocuous, but Benetton, which is popular in Iran, has sparked local condemnation over its Westernizing influence. The 'Designing in Teheran' competition appears to be a very savvy bit of cultural diplomacy. First announced in 2008, it sought designs for two separate mixed-use buildings which would include retail, offices and apartments, and 'convey a message of modernity.' Presumably, if the buildings were widely heralded while bringing jobs to an infamously struggling economy, that would serve as quite an image boost to Benetton." (Fast Company, "Benetton Wants to Bring Avant-Grade Architechture to...Tehran?!" 6/30/09)

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"A group of prominent MPs have warned over the presence of Italian clothing retailer Benetton in Iran, saying its fashions are a bad influence on female consumers, newspapers said on Monday." (Agence France Presse, "Iran MPs Warn Over Benetton Stores," 10/1/07)

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Listed by U.S. Government as doing business in Iran. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, List of Companies Doing Business With State Sponsors Of Terror, Removed from the internet in July of 2007)