If you have withdrawal issues or other problems with brokers regulated in Cyprus, you have to complain step by step
How to complain:
- First of all, request the withdrawal of all funds and complain to the broker itself (Compliance department). Save a copy of the complaint. You must receive a confirmation with a reference number within 5 days. If not, please ask for confirmation and reference number again. (You can refer to the CySEC Circular 100 issued on December 7, 2015)
- Please check the standard Terms & Conditions that you signed. Under EU law (Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 , contractual terms must be „fair“. „Unfair“ contractual terms have no binding force on consumers.
- Then, complain to the CySEC (online complaint). If the Online Complaint Form is disabled, complain via email to the Supervision department.
- After 3 months since your first complaint to the company (but not later than 4 months after the broker response), you can complain to the Cyprus Financial Ombudsman by submitting the complaint form. The fee is 20,- €.
- You can complain to the European Consumer Centre of your country. Here the adresses of all European Consumer Centres. If you are not based in Europe, complain to Cyprus Consumer Centre.
- If you live in Europe, you can complain through the EU Online Dispute Resolution Website
- You can complain to the Forex Regulator of your country, pointing out that your complaint to the CySEC was not processed.
- If you already complained to the CySEC and got no reaction, you can complain to the ESMA against the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. Here you can find the ESMA instructions for complaining and a form for complaint against the CySEC.
- You can also complain to the Audit Office of the Republic of Cyprus.
How to bring the case to court:
- If you live in the EU and claim up to 5000,- €, you can start a „small claim“ procedure https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_small_claims-42-en.do…
- As a EU consumer, you can file a lawsuit in your home country. Refer to EU Regulation 1215/2012 and to the judgement of the EU court of justice in case C-218/12.
A class action is only possible in a few EU countries (i.e. Italy, Hungary).
- Please also consider the possibility of an European Account Preservation Order, which can be obtained before winning a lawsuit (regulation 655/2014, which came into force on January 2017) http://ec.europa.eu/…/comm…/freeze-accounts/index_en.htm
- If you are not based in the EU, you have to file a lawsuit in Cyprus. The procedure time can take up to 5 years. But a Commercial Court will be extablished in Cyprus from 2018. Please keep in mind that only a Cypriot lawyer can represent you before a Cypriot court (contact me for addresses). For this reason it is not recommended hiring a lawyer based in the UK, if you are not UK resident.
How to file criminal charge:
- If you have fallen victim to fraud, you should file criminal charge to your local Prosecutor. Here some instructions by Europol. You can also consider filing a complaint to the UK Police.
- Recently, the FBI is investigating binary options fraud worldwide. A spokeswoman for the FBI said that anyone from all over the world with a complaint or tip about binary options fraud can contact the agency’s Internet crime complaint center, www.IC3.gov.
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