A long time, The blonde salad reigned over Western fashion. Founded in 2009, this blog has allowed Chiara Ferragni to become the richest and most famous content creator of the 2010s, even elected the most powerful influencer in the world by Forbes in 2017. But now the 36-year-old Italian with 30 million followers on Instagram could fall due to suspicions of a scam in the name of charity.
Chiara Ferragni fined one million euros for “unfair commercial practice”
In fact, on 15 December 2023, the Competition and Market Authority imposed a fine of over one million euros on two of its companies (Fenice and TBS Crew) for unfair commercial practices. As reported by the news agency Reuters, the Italian entrepreneur launched a cake sales initiative at the end of 2022 (Panettone and Pandoro, you can’t get more Italian) presumably to support research and treatment on diseases conducted by a hospital in Turin. The general public could believe it especially as they bought cakes as part of the event “Chiara Ferragni and Balocco together for the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin”, more money would be donated to treat sick children. But this was not the case, since several months before the public launch of this commercial operation a fixed donation of 50,000 euros had been made which ultimately brought in 1 million euros for Chiara Ferragni’s companies.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also punishes Chiara Ferragni
Since then it has been ruin for the Italian entrepreneur, who lost his first contract with eyewear manufacturer Safilo, reports the Italian newspaper The messengerand risks losing his place on the board of directors (which he has held since 2021) of shoe retailer Tod’s.
Even the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, made her little comment to push Chiara Ferragni on December 17, 2023, relay The weather. And of course he made the news the next day.
Chiara Ferragni apologizes for fraud on behalf of sick children
In the meantime, the Italian entrepreneur has obviously presented an apology video. With many tears to better give the impression of a sincere and spontaneous video (even if she certainly has an entire communications team and crisis managers to advise her), Chiara Ferragni says:
“ […] I will donate 1 million euros to Queen Margherita [l’hopital, NDLR] to support child care. But that’s not all: I do it publicly because I realized I had made a communication error. A mistake that I will keep in the future, completely separating every charitable activity, which I have always practiced and will continue to practice, from commercial activities. Because even if the end goal is good, if there is not enough control over communication, this can lead to misunderstandings.
As I have already said in recent days, I will appeal the AGCM’s decision [l’Autorité de la concurrence italienne, NDLR] because I think it is disproportionate and unfair. My honest mistake was to connect a commercial activity to a solidarity activity with communication. Unfortunately we can make mistakes, I regret having done it and I realize that I could have been more careful.
But, if the final sanction were to be – as I hope – lower than that decided by the AGCM, the difference would add up to one million euros.
In the next few days I will speak with Regina Margherita to understand how the hospital will use the sum I donated and I will give you periodic updates.
My mistake remains but I want to make sure that something constructive and positive comes from it. »
Other potential scams emerge under the guise of charity led by Chiara Ferragni
But other investigations already point to possible past scams by Chiara Ferragni. Like the Easter cake sale orchestrated by the Italian entrepreneur supposedly to benefit autistic children, she summarizes Daily fact. It therefore risks becoming more difficult than ever for Chiara Ferragni to make us swallow more salads…
Discover BookClub, Madmoizelle’s show that questions society through books, in the company of those who make them.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
