Pandoro-gate, Ferragni and Balocco challenge the Agcm measure. Court of Auditors: investigation on selfie at Sanremo

The influencer and businesswoman Chiara Ferragni has filed an appeal with the Lazio Regional Administrative Court against the Antitrust Authority's decision that in December had imposed a fine of more than one million euros on the companies she and Balocco were associated with for allegedly misleading advertising linked to the sale of 'Pink Christmas' Pandoro. The news, confirmed by sources in Ferragni's entourage, is anticipated today by Il Messaggero. Close by, Balocco also announced that it had challenged 'the measure issued by the Antitrust Authority in relation to the initiative Pandoro Pink Christmas, as it is considered unfair'. "The company," reads a note, "is determined to demonstrate also before the Lazio Regional Administrative Court that it has acted correctly and trusts that the measure will be annulled.

Chiara Ferragni is under investigation for aggravated fraud as part of the investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office centred on the case of the Pink Christmas pandoro produced by the Piedmontese company Balocco. The registration was decided by Deputy Prosecutor Eugenio Fusco. In addition to Chiara Ferragni, the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office entered Alessandra Balocco, president and CEO of the Piedmontese company, in the register of suspects. The alleged offence, based also on a ruling by the Court of Cassation, is fraud aggravated by the minor defence of consumers in that it was committed with the computer system.

The hypothesis - which has cost the digital entrepreneur a one million euro fine by the Antitrust Authority - is that by buying the pandoro, it would have supported research on osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma in order to buy a new machine, but in reality the sale would not have affected the charity and a sum already established. A reconstruction, which in the light of the exchange of e-mails between the confectionery group and Ferragni, led the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office to hypothesise the crime of fraud aggravated by the minor defence, an aggravating circumstance that occurs - according to some rulings of the Supreme Court - when the alleged deception takes place on online platforms.

After the Lazio Regional Administrative Court's ruling, the Court of Auditors opened an enquiry for failure to supervise on the part of the RAI manager who, in the edition of the Sanremo Festival 2023, allegedly failed to intervene to block the live broadcast when Chiara Ferragni on stage with presenters Amadeus and Gianni Morandi promoted the Instagram profiles of the three on the public network, thereby increasing views. For that affair, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court fined the Antitrust Authority 123,000 euro, asking it to send the entire file to the accounting magistracy.