Because the Antitrust still overwhelms Chiara Ferragni
The proceeding initiated by the Antitrust against the confectionary company Balocco relating to pandoro, carried out in collaboration with the entrepreneur and influencer, also extends to Fenice and TBS Crew, both companies attributable to Chiara Ferragni. All the details
The famous Balocco pandoro signed by Chiara Ferragni is not creating problems only for the confectionery company. The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority (Agcm) has in fact communicated that the proceeding for unfair commercial practice started on 14 June has now also extended to the entrepreneur and influencer's Fenice and TBS Crew companies.
THE INVESTIGATION OF THE AGCM
The Agcm reported this morning that it had extended to the companies Fenice Srl and TBS Crew Srl, attributable to Ferragni, the proceeding initiated against Balocco SpA Industria Dolciaria for unfair commercial practice in relation to the commercial initiative called "Chiara Ferragni and Balocco together for the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin”.
Today, the press release adds, the Authority's officials carried out inspections in the offices of Fenice Srl and TBS Crew Srl with the help of the Special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza.
WHAT HAPPENED
The investigation, which began last June 14th, in fact shed a light on Balocco's charity initiative 'branded' Ferragni because it could have misled consumers into thinking that the purchase of a pandoro would have contributed to a charity project in favor of of the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin.
In reality, according to what has emerged from the investigations so far, a fixed amount had already been foreseen and paid by the confectionery giant in favor of the hospital months before the advertising launch of the initiative and independently of the sale of the product and the quantities.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MAGAGNA
As Start wrote when recounting the whole story, the first to raise the question was Selvaggia Lucarelli in Domani on 14 December last. Lucarelli had in fact noticed that in a post by Ferragni in which he advertised the Pandoro Balocco with glitter packaging and big blue eyes, symbol of the influencer's products, among the hashtags there was also the one #adv, which indicates sponsored content – "that is paid,” clarifies the journalist.
“So how does Chiara Ferragni contribute to this charitable initiative, if she is paid I imagine a lot of money by Balocco to sell pandoro?”, she asks.
At that point Lucarelli contacted the Balocco press office who explained that “there is no direct proportion between the number of pandoro sold and the quota that is destined for the project”.
“Ferragni and Balocco – continues the confectionery company – have decided together the recipient of the donation and Balocco has made a donation to Regina Margherita. Then between ourselves we wanted to underline the synergy of intent between the two subjects but to all intents and purposes it is a donation from Balocco".
The influencer therefore would not have taken out a euro for the charity project, but rather would have earned it.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/antitrust-chiara-ferragni/ on Wed, 19 Jul 2023 13:02:53 +0000.