Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 14
MILAN — After being publicly scrutinized for more than two years and tried in a Milan court, on Wednesday, Chiara Ferragni was acquitted in the “Pandoro Gate” and the Easter Eggs cases by Judge Ilio Mannucci Pacini.
Prosecutors in November requested a 20-month jail sentence for the social media personality, followed by Ferragni’s lawyers request for an acquittal during the Dec. 19 hearing.
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As reported, 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.
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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 was also tried for a similar initiative involving Easter eggs with Dolci Preziosi and was acquitted in this case, too.
Her lawyers, Giuseppe Iannaccone and Marcello Bana, have denied there was a case of grand larceny, which would include fraud and swindling.
Ferragni has already paid out 3.4 million euros in fines and donations to charities, including the Turin, Italy-based pediatric hospital Regina Margherita, originally the recipient of the charity initiative.
In an interview with WWD at her lawyer’s studio in Milan after the verdict, a beaming Ferragni said she could finally speak up after more than two years, when, figuratively speaking, she realized she had lost her voice after making a career out of it.
During this period, “when I basically lost everything,” she said of not being able to work and build her business, she took the opportunity to evaluate her future. In April, she took control of her brand and she has been planning a new strategy for it. “I call it my imperfect rebirth. The world has changed and I realized I need to be more consistent with my image and real in what I do. After all, I started the brand in 2013, but the glitter, the pop, the pink is no longer my story,” said Ferragni, who is now 38.
“For the first time I feel free to be myself, and I want to be proud of me as a person and less of the personality.”
Ferragni declined to provide specifics but said she was gearing up for “an important project” at the end of January with “an international brand that believed in me.”
Wearing a sleek black pantsuit, Ferragni had just come from court, as she made it a point to always attend the hearings. “I never wanted to hide. I always said I made a mistake, I admitted it, took full responsibility and apologized. I could not come to terms with the narrative that emerged over the months, I only ever wanted to be a good person and people were describing me as a monster, taking advantage of children in hospital. But that’s not what happened, I received a fixed amount for the advertisement.
“My error, in good faith, was to link, via communications, a commercial activity with a charity initiative and I learned the hard way it should be either one or the other,” she said.
Asked to elaborate on the verdict, Bana said “the judge realized the accusation of fraud was groundless, there was no bad faith and nobody filed a complaint as a deceived party. This was a trial that had no reason to take place, it was un-proceedable.”
Ferragni in April took control of Fenice Srl, the company that operates her eponymous fashion and lifestyle brand.
She bought the shares in Fenice Srl she did not already own from now-former partners Paolo Barletta and Pasquale Morgese, who owned a 40 percent and 27.5 percent stake in the company, respectively. Ferragni was until now the second-largest shareholder with a 32.5 percent interest through her Sisterhood vehicle. Through a recapitalization, she holds more than 99 percent of shares.
“I invested 6.5 million euros to save my [brand] name,” she said proudly. “I feel empowered. Thinking of the responsibilities, it’s frightening but freeing at the same time.”
In addition to Fenice Srl and her namesake brand, Ferragni’s business includes TBS Crew, the company she founded in 2009 that manages her The Blonde Salad blog and activities.
After closing her directly operated store, Ferragni is reviewing the distribution of her collections and the licensing strategy. She currently has an existing one with Morellato for jewelry and watches.
One of the original first influencers, Ferragni over the years piled up modeling contracts with the likes of Pantene, hairstyling products company GHD, Lancôme, Pomellato, Bulgari, Hublot, Oreo and Nespresso.