How Italy's biggest influencer was forced to make grovelling apology

How Italy’s biggest influencer Chiara Ferragni was forced to make grovelling apology to her 30 million fans… after trying to have her cake and eat it: ‘Misleading claim’ that pandoro sales would fund children’s hospital leads to global humiliation

  • The hugely popular Italian model and designer had promoted the special pink Christmas edition of a pandoro cake for makers Balocco last year
  • But customers were found to have been duped into thinking proceeds would go to charity, when in reality 50,000 euros would be donated regardless of sales

Italy’s biggest influencer was forced to make a grovelling apology this week after being fined one million euros (£800,000) by Italy’s anti-trust authority.

Chiara Ferragni recieved the antitrust fine for misleading claims linked to sales of a Christmas cake which she said would raise money to help children with bone cancer.

The case has attracted significant negative publicity for Ferragni, one of the world’s most famous fashion influencers with nearly 30 million followers on Instagram, with criticism coming at the weekend even from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The hugely popular Italian model and designer had promoted the special pink Christmas edition of a pandoro cake for makers Balocco last year.

Pandoro is an alternative to the more famous panettone.

Italy ‘s biggest influencer Chiara Ferragni recieved the antitrust fine for misleading claims linked to sales of a Christmas cake which she said would raise money to help children with bone cancer. A social media post shows Ferragni, 36, holding the special edition cake she created in a pink box as she kneels in front of a Christmas tree

A post shared by Chiara Ferragni ✨ (@chiaraferragni)

Social media posts show Ferragni, 36, holding the special edition cake she created in a pink box as she kneels in front of a Christmas tree. 

Her followers were told that the cash raised would go to Turin’s Regina Margherita Hospital for children, and money raised was said to be earmarked for a new scanner to help detect types of bone cancer.

However, after a year-long investigation, Italy’s competition watchdog AGCM announced the fine of 1.075 million euros on Friday.

It found that consumers had been duped into thinking that by buying a Ferragni-branded pandoro they were contributing to the charity and hospital.

The AGCM also fined cake maker Balocco 420,000 euros. 

The conspirators had justified the high nine euros (£7.70) price by saying the more cakes they sold, the more the children’s clinic would receive, AGCM found.

But in, fact, the inquiry heard, Ferragni and Balocco had agreed that just 50,000 euros (£43,000) would to the hospital regardless of how well the cake sold.

The regulator added that Ferragni made no personal payments to the hospital, while her companies received 1 million euros from Balocco for the branding initiative and related promotional activities. 

Now, AGCM has fined Ferragni 1.075 million euros, which is around £920,000, while cake producers Balocco were issued with a 420,000 euro (£361,000) penalty for their part in the scam.

The case has attracted significant negative publicity for Ferragni (pictured in July), one of the world’s most famous fashion influencers with nearly 30 million followers on Instagram , with criticism coming at the weekend even from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Ferragni’s followers were told that the cash raised would go to Turin’s Regina Margherita Hospital for children, and money raised was said to be earmarked for a new scanner to help detect types of bone cancer

Ferragni on Monday admitted to a ‘communications error’ in an apology to her fans in an apology video posted to her Instagram page, which has almost 30 million followers

Ferragni on Monday admitted to a ‘communications error’ in an apology to her fans.

Sounding contrite and almost tearful, the 36-year-old said she would donate one million euros to Turin’s Regina Margherita Hospital – the paediatric hospital at the centre of the controversy – to give ‘concreteness’ to her apology,

But she also said she would challenge the fine itself.

Ms Ferragni said that she had not given sufficient oversight to the communication surrounding the sales of the Balocco-brand pandoro with her logo, and that she would no longer tie in charity with commercial activities.

‘I realise I have made a communications error … my error, in good faith, was to link, via communications, a commercial activity with a charity one,’ Ferragni said in an Instagram video. 

Ferragni told local media on 15th December: ‘I’m sorry that, after all my and my family’s commitment in recent years on the charitable activity front, we persist in seeing the negative in an operation in which everything was done in good faith.’

She added: ‘The one with Balocco was a commercial operation like many I do every day. In this particular one, I wanted to underline the charitable donation made by Balocco at the Regina Margherita Hospital.

‘For me, it was a fundamental point of the agreement. 

She continued: ‘Knowing that the machine that allows us to explore new therapeutical treatments for children suffering from osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma is now there in the hospital is what matters most.’

Consumers believed that they would have been helping to purchase a new machine for the therapeutic treatment of children suffering from Osteosarcoma and Ewing’s Sarcoma

The 36-year-old said she would donate a million euros to the Regina Margherita, the Turin-based paediatric hospital at the centre of the controversy

Osteosarcoma is a type of bone cancer while Ewing’s sarcoma describes forms of cancer that can occur in the bone as well as in soft tissue.

Ferragni, who has two children with Italian rapper Fedez, said she plans to appeal the verdict. ‘My family and I will continue to give to charity as we have always done because I will never want to give up this part of my life.

‘And since I consider the decision taken against me to be unfair, I will challenge it in the competent bodies.’

Balocco also reportedly plans to appeal.

Its press release upon launching the cake in 2022 said: ‘The historic Piedmontese brand Balocco, recognised and appreciated throughout the world for the excellence of its Christmas offer, presents an exclusive novelty: the Chiara Ferragni pandoro’.

The release said sales of the cake would: ‘be used to finance a research path promoted by the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin, through the purchase of a new machine that will allow us to explore new avenues for the therapeutic treatment of children suffering from osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma.’

In a speech on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticised those who make money from misleading charity claims, in a clear reference to Ferragni.

Ferragni, who has two children with Italian rapper Fedez, said she plans to appeal the verdict

‘The real models to follow are not the influencers who make a lot of money by wearing clothes and showing bags … or even promoting expensive cakes that make people believe they are charitable,’ Meloni said, without explicitly naming Ferragni. 

‘We have to explain to young people that creating (Made in Italy) products is much more extraordinary than just showing them off,’ Meloni said in the speech on the final day of the festival of her right-wing Brothers of Italy party.

Ms Ferragni started as a fashion blogger and went on to sell clothing, accessories and makeup under her own brand in addition to doing promotional work as an influencer. She is also on the Tod’s luxury fashion group board of directors.

In her latest post on Instagram, just one day after posting her apology video, she showed off her family’s stunning new villa in Lake Como.

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