Italian Influencers Form First Union to Protect Professional Rights

Italian influencers have founded the first trade union for their category, the Associazione Italiana Influencer (Assoinfluencer), established by lawyers Jacopo Ierussi (president) and Valentina Salonia (vicepresident). The non-profit aims to protect fair pay and professional recognition for content creators including artists, entrepreneurs, cyber athletes, and science communicators. Assoinfluencer is officially listed in the Ministry of Economic Development's professional associations register. The Italian influencer market is valued at approximately €280 million, with 350,000 influencers nationwide, growing 15% between 2020 and 2021. Globally, the market is estimated at €14 billion. According to the National Influencer Marketing Observatory (ONIM), over 50% of Italian companies ran influencer marketing campaigns in 2021, spending €280 million (+12% vs 2020). Notable art influencers include Elisabetta Roncati (ArtNomadeMilan, 42k followers), art historian Andrea Veneziani (30k followers), Art Rights founder Andrea Concas (23k followers), painter Marco Grassi (1M Instagram, 500k TikTok), and Palazzo Monti founder Edoardo Monti (43k followers).