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IStock / City Presse

From photovoltaic panels to works of art, including investments such as diamonds, spirits, livestock or forests, atypical investment proposals abound on the Internet.

Except that sometimes these offers are too good to be true.

A procedure to follow

Investments that rely on tangible assets rather than financial instruments fall under what is known as miscellaneous asset intermediation.

To have the right to be offered to savers, they must first go through a control carried out by the Financial Markets Authority, the AMF, the gendarme of the sector.

This procedure is accompanied by the registration of the standardized information document dedicated to investors.

Everything is listed in a white list available on the AMF portal, which can be consulted by anyone looking for an investment in good standing.

At the end of 2020, only five internet platforms, almost all focused on investment in wine, were registered: La-bergere.fr, Uwine.fr, Cavissima.com, Patriwine.fr and, in the field of forest investments, Ecotree.

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Legal convictions

Conversely, the blacklist, regularly updated by the AMF to warn the public against unauthorized actors, continues to grow.

Since its creation in 2017, the gendarme has identified 324 websites that have not obtained the necessary authorizations to offer investments in various goods.

In 2020 alone, 78 platforms dealing in particular with investments in livestock, wine, champagne or whiskey, and more recently in containers, were added to it.

While prevention is necessary, it is not always enough.

To go further in protecting savers, the Pacte law of May 22, 2019 extended the powers of the Autorité des marchés financiers by allowing it to take legal action against unauthorized sites for financial investments of goods.

On October 26, 2020, the sector regulator thus obtained for the first time in court the closure of six internet addresses relating to three illegal sites: Ehcapital.fr, Providenceinvestment.com and Financialpartners.com.

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The right reflexes

On the official site Protectepargne.amf-france.org, you will find blacklists of unauthorized companies and platforms and can estimate the risk of scams in relation to an investment proposal.

Advisors are available to you on the AMF Épargne Info Service platform on 01 53 45 62 00.

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