Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has issued orders for the blocking of access to four unauthorised investment websites.

In issuing the orders, the Authority 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), 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.

The websites targeted by the latest Consob orders are:

• "Toroassets" (website www.toroassets.com);
• "Interactive" (website https: / / int-active.io and related pages https: / / clientportalpag.inractve.com and https: / / int-ctive.solutions);
• "CFD Active" (website https: / / i-activecfd24.com and related page https: / / client.i-activecfd24.com);
• "XTXMK" (website https: / / xtxmk.com and related page https: / / client.xtxmk.com).

Thus, the total number of sites blocked by Consob has risen to 1079 since July 2019, when the Authority was given the power to order the blocking of the websites of abusive financial intermediaries.

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

Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors, essential to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom they are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.