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

Specifically, four websites offer illegal investment services and activities on financial instruments, along with one website advertising an unauthorized trading platform that misused the image of public figures, specifically the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and Italian companies operating in the energy sector.

Consob has already taken action in the past to block websites that made illegal reference to the President of the Republic.

The websites targeted by the latest Consob orders are:

• “Freetradeeuropa.com” (website www.freetradeeuropa.com and related pages https://clientarea.platform-trade247.com, https://web-trader.platform-trade247.com);
• “Safecap” (website https://safecapinv.com and related page https://client.safecapinv.com);
• “Bosonalfa-ai” (website https://bosonalfa-ai.com and page https://portal.tradingfxapp.me);
• “GlobalMarketsIC” (website https://glblmrktsic.com and related page https://cab.glblmrktsic.com and linked advertising website https://il-petrolio-italiano.it).

This brings the total number of websites blocked by Consob since July 2019, when the Authority was given the power to order the blocking of websites of abusive financial intermediaries, to 1,522.

In issuing the orders, CONSOB has exercised the powers deriving from the ‘Growth Decree’ and by the ‘Capital Law’.

Internet service providers operating in Italy are currently blocking access to the websites. For technical reasons, it may take a few days for the block to take effect.