They gave in! French regulator lifts ban on 24option
In an example of bureaucratic hypocrisy, the French regulator says it is pleased with remedies implemented by 24option.
French financial markets regulator AMF has just demonstrated some unbelievable hypocrisy with regards to consumer protection by announcing that it is about to lift the ban on binary options broker 24option, a brand of Cyprus-registered Rodeler Limited.
For a year or so, the AMF has been touting as one of its key achievements the ban on Rodeler, which had violated financial laws by offering binary options trading services to French clients – the ban on Rodeler was imposed on August 1, 2016. Moreover, the French regulator has been one of the driving forces behind the ban on advertising of high-risk financial products implemented in the Sapin 2 law.
Today, the French regulator turned a blind eye on its achievements with regards to enhancing customer protection and announced that due to the remedies implemented by 24option, it will lift the ban effective July 3, 2017.
The remedies in question are not specified. FinanceFeeds has monitored the website of 24option and we have to note that during the period of the so-called “ban”, 24option kept operating a website in French. Moreover, the website actively marketed 24option’s partnership with Italian football club Juventus. Such partnerships are now prohibited as per the Sapin 2 law, which AMF had advocated.
AMF’s decision sets an important and dangerous precedent that may be used by other binary options brokers that want to actively market their services in France.
Apparently, the watchdog has forgotten the huge number of complaints received over binary options fraud in France. France’s AMF has recently published its Annual Report for 2016. The number of enquiries about products like binary options and Forex was high in France last year. Binary options and FX complaints accounted for 65% of all complaints received by the regulator last year. These products were the reason for 30% of all enquiries processed by AMF in 2016.
According to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, the losses suffered by French residents due to trading binary options and FX have reached EUR 4 billion over the last six years.
