Italian securities market regulator orders blocking of Uefa Football Fund Ltd website
Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has issued orders for the blocking of access to six websites that offer financial services illegally. The list includes a website run by an entity that abuses the UEFA name.
The list of websites targeted by the latest set of Consob orders includes:
- PX Fintech Limited (website www.first-tradecfd.com and related pages https://my.first-tradecfd.com and https://webtrader.first-tradecfd.com);
- “Alphafxprime” (website https://www.alphaprimefx.co);
- “Titancfd” (website www.titan-cfd.com and related page https://platform.titan-cfd.com);
- “BB360.market EU Limited” (website https://bb360.market);
- “Winnex Consulting” (website www.winnexconsulting.com and related page https://client.winnexconsulting.com);
- Uefa Football Fund Ltd (Internet website https://uefa2017.com and related page https://www.2016uefa.com)
In particular, it should be noted that the illegal public offer of financial products carried out through the website https://uefa2017.com and the related page https://www.2016uefa.com can be particularly insidious as it is made evoking the name of the entity to which the organization of well-known international football competitions can be attributed.
In issuing the orders, the regulator made use of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree” Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies). This piece of legislation empowers Consob to order the black-out of the sites of abusive financial intermediaries. Also, Law no. 8 of 28 February 2020, Article no. 4, paragraph 3-bis, allows the regulator to order the black-out of websites through which illegal offers of financial services and products are conducted.
The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blocked, has thus risen to 774.
The implementation of the blocking of access to the above-mentioned websites by Internet service providers operating in Italy is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect.