Safilo halts Chiara Ferragni contract amid allegations of misleading statements

Eyewear manufacturer and distributor Safilo Group has said that it has interrupted its licensing agreement with Chiara Ferragni amid allegations against the Italian influencer of misleading claims.

The firm said that it was putting to a halt its deal for the design, production and distribution of the public figure’s branded eyewear collection following what it said was a “violation of contractual commitments undertaken by the brand owner”.

Ferragni has been under fire this week after it was revealed that she was required to pay a one million euro fine for claiming the sales of a Ferragni-branded pandoro were to go towards a children’s hospital in Turin.

AGCM published the results of its investigation into the situation last Friday, in which it concluded that consumers had been led to believe that by purchasing the cake they would be contributing to the hospital’s donation.

It instead found that the donation, amounting to 50,000 euros, had already been made by the cake’s producer, Balocco, months earlier, while Ferragni was understood to have received over one million euros from the project.

Ferrangi, who is a social media star, took to Instagram to respond to the allegations three days ago, where she claimed that the issue was down to a “communication error” and that in the future she would make sure to separate charity from commercial activities.

Her statement continued: “As I said in the past few days, I will challenge the measure of the AGCM because I consider it disproportionate and unfair. My mistake in good faith was to link with communication a commercial activity to one of solidarity. Unfortunately you can make mistakes, I am sorry I did it and I realise I could have guarded better.”