July list of relevant influencers available

There are about 40,000 of them, with an average turnover of €24,000 per year, mostly young men (66% with an average age of 32) and active as nano and microinfluencers (in 74% of cases), i.e. with communities of up to 100,000 followers, often very targeted on a specific topic. The snapshot taken by the tech company Fiscozen, which helps professionals manage their VAT registration, and by Kolsquare, an international influencer marketing platform, paints a picture of a profession in constant evolution, one year after the introduction of the new Ateco code (73.11.03) dedicated to those who carry out influencer marketing activities

According to the survey conducted on a sample of over 5 thousand professional influencers in Italia, Instagram is confirmed as the most used and preferred social network by companies, in over 90% of cases, followed by TikTok (79%) and YouTube (69%). Stories are the daily communication channel with one's audience while posts and reels serve more for advertising messages. Fashion, supplements and beauty stand out as the sectors with the highest number of investments, but it is travel and tourism that generate the most significant levels of interaction.

Over the last two years, the influencer marketing sector has undergone a process of increased professionalisation and regulation - in addition to the Ateco code, the Inps Circular 44/2025 and Agcom's resolution 197/25/Cons that amended the Guidelines for influencers and approved the Code of Conduct - which now risks running aground.

According to the experts who took part in Agcom's technical round table for influencers, in July the list to which the relevant influencers must subscribe, i.e. those who reach at least 500,000 followers or a million average monthly views, on at least one platform, will be published. As many people who gravitate around the world of influencer marketing have registered, believing it to be an enabling register, it will be necessary to clean up through a census of who really falls within the criteria drawn up by Agcom. The list is in fact a snapshot of the state of the art.

Three other complexities are added to this stalemate. Firstly, the Authority does not intend to initiate sanctioning proceedings until the list of relevant influencers has been cleaned up and systematised. This is accompanied by the absence of information campaigns that were to be launched in relation to Agcom's technical table, which were also useful for the entire content creator economy chain. Finally, the European Commission has launched a consultation to revise once again the Sma Directive on audiovisual media services that underlies the regulation of influencer marketing. Compared to 2018, there are plans to introduce adefinition of influencer that could impact the rules in force in Italia.