Chiara Ferragni has renounced her appeal to the TAR for the Pandoro gate. The Competition and Market Authority, meanwhile, has concluded the investigation opened last January into the dissemination of commercial communications with which the ‘Ferragni-branded’ eggs were advertised for the 2021 and 2022 Easter holidays. The proceedings had been initiated against the companies Fenice Srl, TBS Crew srl and Sisterhood Srl (owners of the trademarks and rights relating to the personality of Mrs. Chiara Ferragni) and Cerealitalia Industrie Dolciarie spa (owner of the “Dolci Preziosi” trademark) and. The sale of the sweets was associated with a charity initiative in favor of the social enterprise “I Bambini delle Fate”.
Through the investigation, the Authority intended to verify whether the information could induce consumers to believe that, by purchasing the “Ferragni branded” eggs, they would contribute to financially supporting the social enterprise “I Bambini delle Fate”.
All the companies involved in the proceedings have submitted commitments that have been positively assessed and made binding on them by the Antitrust. The most significant commitment requires that at least 1.3 million be donated to “I Bambini delle Fate” over three financial years (i.e. 5% of their respective distributable profits, with an overall minimum of 1.2 million for the three-year period, by the companies Fenice and TBS; 100,000 euros by Cerealitalia). This is a measure suitable for compensating consumers who, by purchasing the product, wanted to provide a financial contribution to “I Bambini delle Fate”.
The companies have also committed to clearly and permanently separating activities with commercial purposes (promotion and sale of products and/or services) from those with charitable purposes, in order to eliminate at the outset any risk of spreading incorrect commercial communications on the possible contribution that consumers can make to charitable initiatives through the purchase of products or services.
The Authority will verify the full and correct implementation of the commitments by the companies, and in case of non-compliance, in addition to reopening the proceedings, it may apply an administrative fine of up to 10,000,000 euros and, if the non-compliance is repeated, order the suspension of the business activity for a period not exceeding thirty days.
The note from the influencer company
Following the initiative of the Competition and Market Authority which had started the PS12699 proceeding on the ‘Easter eggs / Chiara Ferragni’ case, the companies Tbs Crew Srl and Fenice Srl communicate in a note that “it has been closed by the Authority accepting the commitments proposed by the Companies and the other parties to the proceeding, as they are considered suitable to guarantee consumer protection. As a concrete sign of impetus and incentive for charitable activities, the Companies party to the proceeding have undertaken financial commitments, consisting of payments in favor of the social enterprise ‘I Bambini delle Fate’, equal, for three years, to 5% of their respective distributable profits, with an overall minimum of 1,200,000 euros for the three-year period”.
Furthermore – it is stated – “the presentation and formulation of the commitments was seen as an opportunity both for internal evolution within the companies and to identify a ‘behavior model’ that can serve as a benchmark for the entire influencer marketing sector. With specific reference to the communication activity relating to charitable initiatives, the companies have decided to clearly separate commercial activities from charitable ones, committing to abstain from carrying out operations in which commercial activities are connected to charitable activities and, with specific reference to the latter, to provide an illustration of them in a specific section of their respective websites to be created soon”.
Finally, “the Companies have committed to adopting internal self-regulation regarding communication and marketing activities, also inspired by the most recent best practices in the field, equipped with controls that guarantee its enforcement and accompanied by the organization of periodic training for the benefit of employees”, concludes the note.
Codacons: “Full satisfaction”
Codacons expresses satisfaction for the closure of the case regarding Easter eggs involving Chiara Ferragni and which had led the Antitrust to open an investigation following a complaint filed by the association. As you may remember, it was precisely the complaints of Codacons that first led to the million-dollar fine on the pandoro-gate, and then to the investigation into the Ferragni-branded Easter eggs.
“The transparency operation launched by Codacons in 2020 to protect citizens from opaque or deceptive charity operations has been successfully concluded,” explains President Carlo Rienzi. “We believe the Antitrust’s decision to replace sanctions with donations to those most in need is correct, but the most important thing is that the absurd combination of charity and product sales has finally been blocked, considering that Chiara Ferragni’s companies have also committed to clearly and permanently separating activities with commercial purposes from those with charitable purposes,” concludes Rienzi.
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