At the end of a preliminary investigation, the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) found that the methods used by One Life Network LTD with the help of other professionals to promote the purchase of the OneCoin virtual currency and training packages sold in conjunction with it, were misleading in terms of the information provided to consumers about product features and its sales system with pyramidal characteristics. The conduct in question ceased in Italy as a result of the suspension measures adopted by the ICA first against ONE NETWORK SERVICES LTD and the registrants of the onecoinsuedtirol.it, onecoinitaliaofficial.it and onecoinitalia.com websites, and then against ONE LIFE NETWORK LTD and Easy Life S.r.l. (see previous Press release in February 2017).

The investigation revealed that the promotional activity was based on the promise that consumers could obtain OneCoin digital currency (through a raw currency transformation process referred to as mining) after purchasing a training package, and that subsequently this virtual currency would increase in value because of its spreading; the investigation did not confirm any of these elements. Therefore, One Life’s business proposal was based on the false prospect of huge profits; for example, purchasing the € 27,530 package was supposed to yield the equivalent of € 3,000,000 after only two years from joining the scheme.

OneCoin spread through a pyramidal sales system, since the exclusive aim of the sales was to recruit new consumers, strongly encouraged through the awarding of various bonuses, the only real and effective remuneration of the scheme. Indeed, the training kit purchase concealed the fee to join the system and convince other consumers of the goodness of the product. The cryptocurrency OneCoin, whose existence and consistency could not be verified, was the pretext for a system whose exclusive objective (and means of support) was getting more consumers.

The investigation made it possible to establish the unfairness of this practice both because of the deceptive methods with which the features, terms and conditions of the proposed product were presented and because the system integrated a pyramid scheme, which the Consumer Code includes among always misleading commercial practices.

Therefore, in light of the numerous pieces of evidence collected also thanks to the precious collaboration of the Special Antitrust Unit of Guardia di Finanza carrying out numerous verifications, the ICA concluded the proceedings by imposing sanctions on ONE LIFE NETWORK LTD (€ 2,000,000), ONE NETWORK SERVICES LTD (€ 500,000) and Easy Life S.r.l. (€ 80,000), as well as on the registrants of the onecoinsuedtirol.it, onecoinitaliaofficial.it and onecoinitalia.com websites. (€ 5,000 each).

Rome, 10 August 2017