Media agencies and managers, courses on taxation and job classifications are needed

Is thecreator economy supply chain, comprising creators, brands, agencies, platforms, users, ready to make the rules of the Code of Conduct for Influencers their own? According to Gilberto Nava, lawyer and equity partner of Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici, who participated in Agcom's technical table for influencers that contributed to the drafting of the Code of Conduct, there is still some confusion amongprofessionals. "Agcom has absorbed the Iap rules, made them into regulations, i.e. administrative rules with related fine sanctions, while Iap, being a self-governing body, has different objectives and powers, among which only that of blocking the dissemination of content deemed inappropriate'.

In this regard, Iap's recently released 2025 report stated that 251 cases were examined, of which 218 were resolved in short order by the Committee, 19 were injunctions by the Committee, 12 were rulings by the Jury, and two cases were extinguished. There were 138 external reports, 38% of which originated from the public. "Many influencers have set up very careful rules of conduct and compliance procedures on influencer content in order to protect theirreputation," Nava clarifies. "In the event of sanction proceedings or moral suasion actions by Agcm, contracts with influencers are often suspended until the end of the proceedings, because even the advertiser has no interest in seeing its brand involved with an influencer that could be sanctioned."

The sector that should be educated the most is probably the media agencies and managers who manage influencers. "They need to be up-to-date on tax, labour issues, regulation to support their influencers on a daily basis. For example, they must be able to tell their clients how tomanage the communication for an asset received as a gift in the past," says lawyer Nava, recalling an action that should not be underestimated: having a scrupulous control of the assets received and being able to document their provenance. "We need courses to understand the evolution of platforms and forms of communication".

A new obligation, which could generate further confusion, has arisen with a careful reading of the Budget Law 2026. "Article 1, paragraph 273, establishes that to contribute to the expenses arising from the functioning of Agcom are also those entities that do activities of "supplying, creating, producing or organising content on video sharing platforms"," the lawyer points out. "The rate is set to the extent of2 per thousand of revenues for 2026-2028, while the exemption applies to entities whose contribution is equal to or less than EUR 100." So the contribution has to be paid this year for all those with relevant revenues over 50 thousand euro. "The absurdity to which this rule leads is not only the indefinite plethora of subjects to which it is addressed," and which, according to Nava, risks bringing new burdens to the sector, "but that this contribution," the lawyer concludes, "is also required from non-relevant influencers, that is, those not subject to the Authority's control. There is therefore a risk of a short circuit in Agcom's implementation of the rule'.