Erscheinung:19.03.2024 | Topic Unauthorised business, Prospectuses, Consumer protection Burberryinvest: BaFin investigates purported sale of TikTok shares
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) warns consumers about the services offered by Burberryinvest, based in New York, United States of America, and in London, United Kingdom. The company is offering financial and investment services without authorisation under the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG) or the German Investment Firm Act (Wertpapierinstitutsgesetz – WpIG). Specifically, the company is leading investors to believe it can sell them shares in the Beijing-based company Bytedance Technology Ltd. (“TikTok shares”). In addition, BaFin has not received a securities prospectus from the company; the prospectus is required under the German Securities Prospectus Act (Wertpapierprospektgesetz – WpPG) for an offer of shares to the public.
On the website burberryinvest.com, the operator is also referred to as “BBI”, or “BBI Holdings”.
In the past, there have been frequent reports of attempted fraud where shares in well-known companies are offered for subscription. Following payment by the buyer, the shares are not delivered and the offerors can no longer be contacted. In some cases, the shares offered do not even exist.
Background
As a rule, securities may be offered to the public in Germany only if a prospectus has been published. This prospectus must be approved by BaFin prior to publication. Offering securities to the public without an approved prospectus constitutes a violation of the prospectus requirement under Article 3(1) of the EU Prospectus Regulation – unless an exemption applies.
During the prospectus approval process, BaFin checks whether the minimum information required by law is included in the prospectus and whether its content is understandable, coherent and consistent. However, BaFin is not responsible for checking whether the information contained in the prospectus is correct, for assessing the integrity of the issuer, or for monitoring the product in question.
No securities prospectus relating to TikTok shares has been submitted to BaFin for approval. You can check whether an approved prospectus for an offer of securities to the public has been filed with BaFin by consulting the Prospectuses filed database on the BaFin website.
Companies that offer to sell securities of other companies to consumers require authorisation from BaFin. The same applies for pre-IPO shares. Information on whether particular companies have been authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.
