Italy’s CONSOB orders ISPs to block websites of four unauthorised online trading firms

The Italian Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) today announces that it has issued an order for the blocking of four websites of entities that offer online trading services to Italian investors without having the authorization to do so.

In doing so, the Commission made use of the new powers resulting from the ‘Decreto Crescita’ (‘Growth Decree’, Law no. 58 of June 28, 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which the regulator can order internet service providers (ISPs) to block access in Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization.

The four companies and websites are listed below:

• Signal Invention s.r.o. – “Financial-Signal” (www.financial-signal.com);
• Gam Group Ltd – “MarketsFX” (https://marketsfx.com);
• TradersHome Ltd (https://tradershome.com);
• StsCrypto (https://stscrypto.com).

The regulator explains that blocking of these websites by ISPs is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to be implemented.

Until 2017 Consob has been publishing “warnings” concerning the risks connected with the services offered by unauthorized operators, which were only addressed to the general public. Since 2018, however, with the application of the new European regulation on the provision of investment services (Mifid2), the instruments given to Consob have been significantly enforced by the attribution of the new power to order the termination of the infringement to the unauthorized operators. Accordingly, Consob had only the power of asking the cancellation of the Italian version of the abusive sites to the host providers.

Thanks to the “growth decree”, CONSOB gains a new power – to order ISPs the blocking of the websites. As FinanceFeeds has reported, the Italian regulator has earlier ordered the blocking of access to 29 illicit financial services websites.