MILAN — In a closed-door hearing that lasted all day Friday, it was the turn of Chiara Ferragni‘s lawyers to speak and they requested an acquittal for the digital influencer and entrepreneur.
As reported, Ferragni is being tried in a Milan court and prosecutors last month asked for her to be sentenced to 20 months in jail for the so-called “Pandoro Gate” case.
The sentence is expected on Jan. 14.
In December 2023, Italy’s competition authority AGCM revealed it was fining Ferragni more than 1 million euros after finding that she allegedly misled consumers by teaming with Italian confectionery maker Balocco in 2022 on the Pink Christmas charity project.
As per AGCM, consumers were tricked into thinking that by buying a Ferragni-branded Christmas cake, the alternative to panettone called pandoro, they were contributing to a charity for a children’s hospital. According to the regulator, Balocco made a 50,000 euro payment to the hospital months before, launching the Ferragni pandoro and that sales of the product, which retailed at double its regular price, had no effect on the donation. In addition, AGCM revealed that Ferragni allegedly received 1 million euros for the initiative, but that she made no personal donation to the hospital.
Ferragni is also being tried for a similar initiative involving Easter eggs with Dolci Preziosi.
Her lawyers, Giuseppe Iannaccone and Marcello Bana, on Friday denied this was a case of grand larceny, which would include fraud and swindling. It is understood the lawyers presented in court emails between Ferragni and Balocco as a case of false advertising and that Ferragni has already paid out 3.4 million euros in fines and donations to charities, including the Turin-based pediatric hospital Regina Margherita, originally the recipient of the charity initiative.
“My error, in good faith, was to link, via communications, a commercial activity with a charity one,” Ferragni said in 2023 on Instagram.
The Chiara Ferragni brand was launched in 2013. As she dealt with her legal issues and the repercussion from the scandal, Ferragni has been less active in the industry, and she has been restructuring her brand. In April, she revealed she had taken control of Fenice Srl, the company controlling and operating her eponymous fashion and lifestyle brand.
Ferragni long ago distanced herself from the role of influencer, piling up modeling contracts over the years with the likes of Pantene, hairstyling products company GHD, Lancôme, Pomellato, Bulgari, Hublot, Oreo and Nespresso, and taking on the role in 2017 of president and chief executive officer of TBS, the company that manages her The Blonde Salad blog and activities.
