An Italian food company famous for making pandoro Christmas cakes has being investigated by Italy's antitrust authority over alleged unfair commercial practices in its marketing.
The antitrust authority said in a statement on Wednesday it had raided the offices of the Balocco food company in connection with the process.
The antitrust authority said it had launched an investigation into Balocco S.p.A. Industria Dolciaria for alleged unfair commercial practice in relation to the commercial initiative "Chiara Ferragni and Balocco together for the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin."
Ferragni, 36, is Italy's top fashion influencer with 29 million followers on Instagram.
The antitrust authority alleged that consumers could have been misled into thinking that by buying the Ferragni-branded Balocco Pandoro they were contributing to charity donations for a bone cancer research at a hospital in Turin.
The authority alleged that Balocco had already set a fixed amount of donations for the hospital as part of the marketing campaign regardless of its sales of pandoro.
Balocco and Ferragni did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.
