New Google Play policy prompts GMO Click to stop offering options trading app
The move apparently stems from the new rules on Google Play concerning apps that expose users to harmful financial instruments.
GMO Click Securities, a subsidiary of GMO Internet Inc. (TYO:9449), is about to make changes to its mobile app offering as a result of a new Google Play policy, the broker said in a notice to its clients today. The move, as one might expect, concerns an options trading application for Android devices.
The broker said the application – Gai Oproid, will not be available to download effective May 14, 2018. GMO Click explained that the change reflects changes in the Google Play policies, apparently referring to the April updates to the policies which state:
“Financial Instruments
We don’t allow apps that expose users to deceptive or harmful financial instruments.
Binary Options
We do not allow apps that provide users with the ability to trade binary options”.
This is not the first time that GMO Click has to react to changed policies of online app stores. In September last year, the broker announced that its binary options trading applications cannot be downloaded from Apple’s App Store. The company explained that this is due to the change in the policy of the store. A couple of months before that Apple updated the OS developer guidelines, saying that “Apps that facilitate binary options trading are not permitted on the App Store”.
Back then, other Japanese online trading companies like Hirose Tusyo Inc (TYO:7185), or Hirose FX, and YJFX, a a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan Corporation (TYO:4689), also said their binary options trading applications would no longer be available to download on the App Store.
In the meantime, many jurisdictions, including Europe, are planning harsh measures against binary options. In March this year, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced that it has agreed on measures on the provision of contracts for differences (CFDs) and binary options to retail investors. As previously guided by the regulator, a ban on the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail investors will be introduced. All other measures restricting the offering of such products to retail investors did not give the desired result.
