Luxottica has definitely kept a low profile for a company it's size. How many people know that Oakley and Ray Ban are made by the same company? I bet a show of hands would say not that many.
And they are absolutely a monopoly on designer sunglasses. One of the definitions of a monopoly is the ability to effectively set price levels, and by the fact that they own almost every major designer brand, as well as vertically integrated through the sales channel, means that they can control the message and price in the designer sunglasses market and get away with selling for $150 glasses that cost $3.98 to make.
Apple's markups, while still higher than other brands, is on a completely lower order of magnitude than Luxottica. Whereas Dell or HP may only make a ~30% margin on their computers (build for $400, sell for $500), Apple can pull off closer to 50% (intel Imac costs $900 to manufacture, retails for ~$2000) Apple's ability to eek out higher margins is both a factor of the brand equity it has, as well as the fact that it controls the distribution channel by fulfilling directly. (like dell, but unlike HP).
If Apple were to have the same margins as Luxottica (~37x cost of manufacture), you'd be buying an iMac for $33,300.
The shades are rad and the price is right... Check them out! 
