GB Trade FX and Tradobit to have their websites blocked in Italy

Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) continues to issue orders for the blocking of access to unauthorized investment websites. Today, the regulator announced it has ordered the blackout of five new websites that abusively offer financial services.

The websites targeted by the latest set of orders are:

• Kiplar Ltd (website https://kiplar.com);
• “AcadianAmLtd” (website www.aca-asset.com and related page https://accounts.aca-asset.com);
• UniCap Trade Ltd and “Tradobit” (website www.tradobit.com)
• Revotrade Ltd (website www.revotrade.com and related page https://my.revotrade.com);
• “GB Trade FX” (website https://gbtradefx.co.uk and related page https://gbtradefx24.co.uk).

In issuing the orders, CONSOB made use of the powers granted to it under the so-called “Growth Decree”(Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies). This piece of legislation allows the regulator to order the “black out” of websites that are not authorized to offer investment services in Italy but nevertheless do so.

The number of websites 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 467. Just a couple of weeks ago the number was 452. Many of these websites offer CFD, FX and cryptocurrency trading.

A prominent example of a website of a Forex broker blocked in Italy is that of IC Markets. This case also demonstrates that the blocking of a website can have much more serious effect on a business rather than a warning.

The implementation of the black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to come into effect.