There Hot Chip Challenge it ends here. At least in Italy, where the Competition and Market Authority has ordered the withdrawal from the market of ultra-spicy chips, at the center of a social trend of the same name. The much-loved challenge for the youngsters was to eat the flaming chip while going as long as possible without drinking, resisting its unusual spiciness. On YouTube and TikTok, several content creators took up the challenge. One of them, TikToker Diego Simili, told his followers that he ended up in hospital after eating the offending chip. In the United States, a 14-year-old boy from Massachusetts died after eating a chip very similar to the one in question.
The AGCM decision
For this reason, the AGCM considered that “the commitments presented by the company are capable of putting an end to the illegitimacy of the commercial practice contested in the communication launching the investigation or to the induction of a challenge mainly targeting adolescent consumers (very widespread). also via social networks) and the inadequate representation of information on the health risks linked to the use of the product”. Furthermore, Antitrust challenged “the lack of relevant information on a food product which could endanger the health and safety of consumers, particularly children or adolescents”. For this reason, it has obliged the company DAVE's srl, distributor of the product, to no longer market or advertise the article. It will also have to withdraw it from its sales lists.
The surveys
“With this decision, the Authority has successfully intervened to protect young consumers, who are more influenced by messages that encourage them to consume even dangerous products, by taking advantage of their propensity to accept challenges launched on social networks,” we read further in the AGCM press release. Last October, following a complaint from the National Consumers' Union, the Ministry of Health instructed the NAS carabinieri to investigate the product. A month later, the Antitrust Authority also opened an investigation into the Hot Chip Challenge.
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