Consob now announces almost every Monday the blackout of websites of illegally operating providers of financial services. This makes the Italian financial market supervisory authority the only EU regulator to take this effective measure. For consumer protection in the EU, it would be desirable if more member states would create a legal basis for blocking illegal or fraudulent websites. Today, the Italian watchdog announced that it ordered the black-out of five new websites that offer financial services illegally.
Consob availed itself 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 Consob can order internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization. Below are the sites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
- Core Pay Solution Ltd and SeaLimited Ltd with website www.sealimited.io;
- CapitalEU with website www.capitaleu.com;
- Astrica Ltd with website www.market-4fx.com;
- SPTrade24 Ltd with website www.sptrade-24.com;
- MarketsFX with website www.marketseu.com;
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 426.
