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Dutch Eyewear Chain Halts Sales of Meta Glasses Amid Privacy Concerns
Confirmed
In Short: Hans Anders, a Dutch eyewear retailer, has paused sales of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses due to privacy concerns.
The decision follows media reports about the glasses being used to surreptitiously film people, especially women, in public spaces.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) recently issued a warning about camera glasses, noting that they are not always noticeable in public despite having an indicator light when recording.
In September, Consumentenbond, a Dutch consumer advocacy group, urged the government to ban the glasses, citing privacy concerns.
Wehkamp, another Dutch online retailer, has also paused sales of the glasses.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority is investigating the possibilities for further measures against camera glasses and other wearables with a camera.
Claudia van Bruggen, state secretary for justice, said that only six reports and one complaint about the glasses have been made to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.
The European Data Protection Board is planning to publish a report on the glasses later this year, and the Dutch government is awaiting the findings and recommendations.
Offlimits, a nonprofit combating online abuse, urged Meta and EssilorLuxxotica to remove the glasses from the market until a way can be found to prevent surreptitious recordings.
In Britain, pub chain Wetherspoon has restricted the use of Meta’s glasses over concerns about covert recording.
Meta continues to defend its glasses, pointing to the indicator light and anti-tampering features designed to disable recording if the light is covered or tampered with.
The glasses combine cameras, microphones, speakers, and artificial intelligence features within frames designed to resemble conventional eyewear.
They can also use voice commands to interact with Meta’s AI assistant and perform functions such as making calls, listening to audio, or asking questions about their surroundings.
What this adds
The decision by Hans Anders marks one of the first major actions by an eyewear retailer to halt sales of Meta's smart glasses.
The growing Dutch outcry over the glasses mirrors a broader backlash against smart glasses equipped with cameras in Europe and the United States.
Background
Meta introduced the Ray-Ban Meta Audio and Gen 3 glasses, along with a new VR headset, at Connect 2026.
What's confirmed
- Hans Anders, a large eyewear chain in the Netherlands, is pausing sales of Meta glasses.
- "This decision follows the ongoing public and political debate surrounding smart glasses and the questions being raised about the conditions under which this technology can be used," a spokesperson for Nexeye, the parent company of Han Anders, told Business Insider.
- The company said the decision followed an intensifying public and political debate around smart glasses and questions over the circumstances in which such technology should be used.
- The decision comes amid wider scrutiny in Europe and the United States over how smart glasses collect video, how clearly bystanders are informed when recording is taking place and what happens to captured material.
- The light flashes when the camera is recording and, according to Meta, cannot be disabled through software.
- Dutch media reported that footage recorded in places including beaches, shopping streets and bathrooms had circulated through Telegram groups and so-called “creepshot” websites.
- Reuters reported that Dutch privacy regulator Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens emphasised that videos containing identifiable people generally cannot simply be shared without appropriate legal grounds or consent.
- The company told Reuters that it continues to develop the product and pointed to the visible blinking light as an important privacy feature.
- The company has not announced plans to stop sales because of the Dutch criticism.
- In the United States, Meta and eyewear partner EssilorLuxottica are facing litigation alleging that videos captured using the glasses were reviewed by human annotators without the knowledge of people appearing in the footage.
- A bill that would have introduced additional penalties for secretly recording people using smart glasses was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 1, after he argued that its definition of wearable recording technology was too broad.
- Hans Anders has stopped selling the glasses for an indefinite period, making it one of the first major eyewear retailers to take such action against Meta’s wearable devices.
What's still developing
- Backlash against Meta glasses is heating up in the Netherlands.
- "Our glasses continue to be very popular and we're continuing to expand styles and features," a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider.
- A growing Dutch outcry over the glasses mirrors a broader backlash against smart glasses equipped with cameras.
- Dutch consumer group Consumentenbond has warned that the glasses make it relatively easy to record people without permission because they look similar to ordinary spectacles.
- Meta Ray-Ban glasses ban: In the Netherlands, eyewear retailers are halting the sales of Meta's smart glasses amidst growing public anxiety regarding privacy.