The Dutch financial supervisory authority has imposed an administrative fine of €15,000 on Rodeler Limited and its local unit Rodeler (NL) BV for violation of a section of the country’s General Administrative Law Act. Rodeler operated a CFDs trading platform under the brand 24option.com.
Though a maximum penalty of €2 million can be imposed for such violations, the regulator cited the companies’ limited financial strength and previous fines behind the small penalty amount.
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) detailed that it launched an investigation against the local unit of Rodeler to determine if the firm needs an AFM license for its operations. In addition, it wanted to determine if the company was indulging in any unfair commercial practices.
As a part of the investigation, the regulator asked for the recordings of the telephone conversations between Rodeler NL and customers. But, the company failed to provide most of the call recordings, hindering the supervision of the AFM and violating mandatory obligations .
“This behavior by Rodeler NL is serious and a fine is, therefore, imposed,” the AFM noted (translated from Dutch).
The penalty on the Cypriot parent was imposed as the regulator believes that the leadership at Rodeler Limited supersized the Dutch unit for the violations.
Regulatory Troubles
This is not the first regulatory action against Rodeler as the company is already in troubled water. The Cypriot regulator withdrew Rodeler’s Cyprus Investment Firm license earlier this year upon voluntary renunciation by the company.
Furthermore, Rodeler faced hefty fines from the Cypriot regulator for alleged compliance breaches and was banned by numerous other regulators.
