{"id":269701,"date":"2025-11-18T13:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T13:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/269701\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T13:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T13:12:14","slug":"italy-cracks-down-on-influencers-in-response-to-christmas-cake-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/269701\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy cracks down on influencers in response to Christmas cake scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy\u2019s top influencers must register with the government and risk fines of up to \u20ac600,000 if they violate a new code of conduct created in the wake of fraud allegations against the country\u2019s biggest social media star.<\/p>\n

The crackdown introduced this month covering stealth advertising, sexual content and fake news follows accusations that Chiara Ferragni, the fashion influencer, peddled high-priced pandoro Christmas cakes and Easter eggs to her 28 million followers while falsely claiming that the proceeds went to charity.<\/p>\n

Before being engulfed by the scandal known in Italy as \u201cpandoro-gate\u201d, Ferragni was earning an estimated $100,000 for each post, had a Barbie doll named after her and enjoyed a dream marriage to Italy<\/a>\u2019s best-known rapper Fedez that was turned into a Netflix documentary.<\/p>\n

Now she is facing trial in Milan with a verdict expected in January. Ferragni, 38, claims innocence, although she has already paid out \u20ac3.4 million as part of a civil fraud case<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a difficult phase in my life and I think you\u2019ll understand if I don\u2019t feel like making any further comments,\u201d she said after a pre-trial hearing last month.<\/p>\n

\"Chiara<\/p>\n

Ferragni<\/p>\n

DONATO FASANO\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Pandoro-gate was a catalyst for the creation of the new register and code of conduct for influencers, a source said at Italy\u2019s state communications watchdog Agcom, which drew up the rules.<\/p>\n

Under the initiative, any influencer<\/a> in Italy with more than half a million followers \u2014 or who attracts a million views a month \u2014 needs to register. Once listed, they must declare when they are being paid to tout a product. \u201cA significant number don\u2019t,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n

Last year, influencers in Italy took in an estimated \u20ac352 million from companies to sell their wares.<\/p>\n

Other no-no\u2019s include sexual content, the promotion of gambling, cigarettes and alcohol, and the use of AI-generated personalities. Influencers who do not sign up can be fined up to \u20ac100,000, while violations of the code can incur fines of up to \u20ac600,000.<\/p>\n

Under the rules, Ferragni\u2019s alleged pocketing of pandoro proceeds that should have gone to charity might have earned her a \u20ac250,000 fine, the source said.<\/p>\n

About 600 influencers have signed up already, but some have complained that the entry bar of a million views a month means even influencers with just tens of thousands of followers will have to join.<\/p>\n

The Agcom source told the Times that was deliberate. \u201cNiche influencers with only 50,000 followers will often work with companies targeting their particular market,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

Ferragni may have lost about a million followers since pandoro-gate erupted yet that still leaves her with 28 million and a typical Instagram post this month in which she posed in a revealing dress got nearly 400,000 likes. She and Fedez have divorced.<\/p>\n

The Italian journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli, who first accused Ferragni of fraud, said, however, that the influencer had suffered huge damage to her reputation and her pocket. \u201cHer fans had a relationship with her based on trust in her and in her perfect family,\u201d she said. \u201cSo to them these allegations feel like a betrayal in the family and that has caused irreparable damage to her image.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s top influencers must register with the government and risk fines of up to \u20ac600,000 if they violate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-269701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}