The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority has launched an investigation against Balocco Industria Dolciaria for alleged unfair commercial practice in relation to the commercial initiative “Chiara Ferragni and Balocco together for the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin” promoted between November and December 2022.
“Consumers induced to think of contributing to a donation to a hospital by purchasing a Ferragni branded pandoro from Balocco. While the amount of the check that would go to the hospital was already established by the company, independently of the sales trend and therefore of the consumers’ commitment”: this is the motivation.
In that period – the Antitrust explains in a note – the company put on sale limited edition pandoro “branded” Ferragni, to support research on osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma in favor of the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin.
According to the Authority, “both in the press releases and on the pandoro packaging, the way in which the initiative was presented could mislead consumers by leveraging their sensitivity to charitable initiatives with a social background. In fact, consumers could be led to believe that by purchasing Ferragni’s “branded” pandoro they were contributing to the donation for the purchase of a new machine, while Balocco had arranged a fixed-cost donation to the hospital several months before the advertising launch. of the initiative and therefore completely independently of the sales trend of the product”.
Today, the press release concludes, the Authority’s officials carried out inspections in the premises of Balocco SpA Industria Dolciaria with the help of the Special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza.
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