Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to five new unauthorised investment websites.

In issuing the orders the regulator made use of the powers deriving from the “Growth Decree” (law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which Consob can order Internet service providers to block the access from Italy to websites through which financial services are offered without the necessary authorization.

The websites targeted by the latest set of Consob orders are:

• “StormInvest” (website www.storminvest.org);
• “Nextgentrading” (website https://nextgentrading.io and related pages https://client.nextgentrading.io and https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io);
• “Finexleaders” (website www.finexleaders.eu);
• AI2Trade Ltd (website www.ai2trade.com and the related pages https://trading.ai2trade.com and https://panel.ai2trade.com);
• Axia Group Ltd and “Axiacvs” (website www.axiacvs.co and related pages https://client.axiacvs.co and https://webtraderapp.net).

Thus, the total number of sites blocked by Consob since July 2019 has risen to 1,013. Last week, the regulator ordered the blocking of access to four unauthorised investment websites.

The process of implementing the black-out of these websites by Internet service providers is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to be implemented.