Agcom will fine Rai for hidden advertising on Instagram during Sanremo

Agcom will fine Rai for the hidden advertising granted to Instagram during the last Sanremo Festival. In today’s hearing, the Board of the Communications Regulatory Authority unanimously considered the issue “manifestly unfounded and mandated the competent management to start a sanctioning procedure“. The decision, as Agcom sources inform al Foglio, will arrive no sooner than a month. The amount of the fine could go up to around 250 thousand euros. It is the main result of an investigation which, as we reported on the our newspaper, had opened three weeks ago. He had under his magnifying glass the advertising spaces granted without a contract (or in any case not officially communicated) to Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta, of which Instagram is a part. On this point, Agcom had he also asked for the contracts of the artists who participated in Sanremo in order to shed light on the matter, but it also concerned other issues relating to the Italian Music Festival held from 7 to 11 February last.

As for the prime time kiss between Fedez and Rosa Chemical, according to some in violation of the rules on the protection of minors, Agcom has “the request to open a disciplinary investigation was deemed unfounded“. In this case the decision was taken by the Council by majority vote (with the favorable vote of the president Lasorella and the commissioners Giacomelli and Giomi and the against vote of the Commissioners Aria and Capitanio). While on Blanco’s performance the same Council has always decided to start a further investigation “to evaluate any profiles harmful to human dignity and incitement to violence”.

As mentioned, now we will have to wait at least a month to understand the extent of the fine imposed on Rai by Agcom. During the proceeding, however, the company will be granted cross-examination in order to be able to defend its position before the Authority.