Hi allen,
Even een update want ben uit de lucht geweest op dit platform. Na behoorlijke druk te hebben uitgeoefend op Etoro, DNB en AFM kwam Etoro natuurlijk met de mededeling dat ze onze crypto assets niet zouden liquideren (toeval??). Ondanks herhaaldelijk verzoek en een formele klachtenregen aan Etoro weigeren ze de crypto's naar de wallet over te zetten en ook willen ze niks vergoeden qua spreads. Ik heb het opgegeven, omdat dit mij heel veel tijd en energie heeft gekost.
Ik ben ook met meerdere advocaten in contact geweest die hebben geadviseerd over de 1ste stap: klacht aan DNB en AFM. Ook heb ik ondertussen reactie van DNB en AFM gehad met het antwoord dat ze in principe niet garant staan voor hoe Etoro handelt en dat het probleem dus met Etoro opgelost dient te worden. Lekker makkelijk natuurlijk. Maar zoals gezegd denk ik wel degelijk dat die druk heeft geresulteerd in uitstel van de liquidatie dus dat is mooi meegenomen. Ik denk niet dat het zin heeft om nog allen een klachtenbrief te sturen naar DNB op dit moment namens jezelf.
Zelf heb ik met de verbeterde cryptokoers nu alles uit Etoro getrokken en met een marginaal verlies de boel kunnen verlaten (dankzij XRP zoals meeste van julloe ook wel zullen hebben). Mocht je zelf toch nog juridische stappen overwegen, zie hier de mail die ik vandaag ontving van een advocaat die namens meerdere Europese eToro klanten werkt om Etoro te lijf te gaan:
Dear eToro user,
You are receiving this message because you contacted either the Vesenjak Law Firm or Professor Jurij Toplak regarding eToro.
Thank you for contacting us. In this group message, we explain our activities about eToro. Due to a large number of inquiries, we were unable to respond to each of you individually. We apologize for sending this group message. Please expect to hear from us with a personalized individual letter within the next ten days.
Some of you contacted us because you were a victim of the eToro's January 8, 2021 closure of all European customers' leveraged positions on cryptocurrencies. Some of you informed us about various other problems with eToro. We will first explain our activities regarding the January 8 closure, and then we will explain possibilities in other cases.
The January 8, 2021 closure of leveraged positions
The closure of leveraged crypto positions was a violation of clients' property rights. The Vesenjak Law Firm, led by attorney Slavko Vesenjak, and joined by law professor Jurij Toplak, adjunct professor at Fordham Law School in New York, leads a global team of experts who assist victims of eToro's action.
We will do everything to prove in courts that eToro's actions were illegal. The leveraged position, and associated stop-loss limit chosen by a user, constitutes a contract. The Terms and Conditions provision that is unusual or allows a company to end such a leveraged position one-sidedly is illegal. Also, a company violated the law if it did not explicitly inform a user about the terms' change. Any court should disregard such a Terms and Conditions rule. The eToro's Terms and Conditions provision, which allowed a one-sided ending of the leveraged position, was unusual, and eToro did not explicitly inform users about it. The case law of all European democracies' courts is clear that courts should ignore such Terms and Conditions' clauses. The European Union law (the recently enacted EU directive on consumer protection, among other things) is clear about it, too.
In other words, under EU law, "terms and conditions" have to be fair. Unfair terms are not binding. The contract is not allowed to create an imbalance between your and the platform's rights and obligations. Any ambiguities will be interpreted in your favor. The eToro's "terms and conditions" are full of terms for which we are confident are unfair and unlawful. Among these are the terms under which the eToro ended your leveraged positions.
We will do everything to prove in courts that your eToro's leverage contracts are valid, and we will ask courts to confirm that they are valid. We plan to prove that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have risen above the price at which eToro ended the contracts on January 8, 2021, and you are suffering substantial financial loss.
We have made connections with several scholars, experts, and organizations willing to testify in courts or submit written testimonies confirming our arguments. We plan to hold a virtual media conference. Please let us know if you are willing to share your experience with eToro. Media is interested in various personal stories.
You should get $2000 for each $100 invested in January
We will ask the courts to rule that the leveraged contracts are valid or award an investor the maximum they would get if eToro did not close positions. This way, an investor who invested $100 in early January 2021 with a leveraged CFD contract may be awarded about $2000.
We plan other activities to protect your investments
In the first stage, we plan to file three or four lawsuits in several European democracies on behalf of individual investors. Please let us know if you are willing to be one of these investors. We are trying hard to make legal proceedings free of charge for you. If you know an attorney in your country who would be willing to represent you pro bono, please let us know immediately. Also, please let us know if you are ready to cover part of the proceedings' costs. We will probably file at least some of the first lawsuits in countries with fast courts and robust consumer protection.
We expect the courts to rule in at least some of these cases within six to twelve months. These judgments will serve as model judgments for all other cases.
In the second stage, we plan to negotiate with eToro to return your leveraged positions or pay you compensation. If no agreement is reached, we plan to file lawsuits for other eToro's victims. In these court proceedings, courts will most probably follow the first phase's courts' principles.
It is essential that you send us your data to stay in contact. We developed a form for you and others here: https://vesenjak.si/en/etoro.html&source=gmail&ust=1614267170673000&usg=AFQjCNEezxXY7SrOAiFh4iv9DDUaFiNtL A">
https://vesenjak.si/en/etoro.html We invite you to share news, and the online form, with others you know that eToro has hurt, and together we can achieve justice. It will not cost you anything to submit your data and to stay informed about further developments. Our lawyers will do everything to make legal proceedings cost-free or at a low cost. We contacted European consumer protection organizations and bodies that will protect your rights. We will work with you and file lawsuits in several EU member states to achieve justice for you.
Some of you informed us that eToro asked you to change the margin to 100 percent. Others have agreed to accept small amounts of one or two dollars and decided in exchange to give up your rights to compensation or re-opening of the closed leveraged positions. If you do so, you may lose your claim.
Other claims against eToro
Apart from the January 8 leveraged positions' closure, we have received dozens of messages and testimonies about eToro's dubious practices. Some of you called them fraudulent, and others felt deceived. Many of you requested the withdrawal of funds from eToro accounts, and after several days, money has still not arrived in your bank accounts. Others never agreed to the Terms and Conditions, which eToro claims bind you. If you feel that eToro violated your rights or property, share your experience. We will do everything to help. Please allow us three weeks to respond to you individually.
Other activities to improve eToro's practices
We feel a moral obligation to warn the European public about their consumer rights and make sure that authorities revoke the licenses of companies with unfair terms and conditions. We plan a series of awareness-raising activities to improve financial services' providers' practices in Europe. Hopefully, eToro and other providers of online financial services will improve their terms and practices.
Sincerely Yours,
The Vesenjak Law Firm