The Italian regulator Consob has blocked five websites of illegally operating financial service providers again this week. This brings the number of websites blocked since this regulation was introduced in July 2019 to 410. It should be noted that the EU directives basically impose on each member country the obligation to take action against illegal and/or fraudulent websites. Currently, Consob is, unfortunately, the only EU regulator acting with black-out orders.
Below are the sites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
- Kbs Capital Markets Ltd with SwissPremiumFX (website swisspremiumfx.com and its page my.swisspremiumfx.com);
- Terratech Ltd with BimFX24 and EURtrade24 (websites bimfx24.co and eurtrade24.com);
- Lollygag Partners Ltd with FinoCapital (website finocapital.io);
- Widdershins Group Ltd with 24FinTime (website 24fintime.io)
The commission availed itself of the new powers resulting from the “Decreto Crescita” (“Growth Decree”; Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which Consob can order internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization. The number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 410.
