Resolution no. 21996

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the website https://capitrades.com and the respective page https://secure.capitrades.com

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA
[THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COMPANIES AND THE STOCK EXCHANGE]

HAVING REGARD TO Law no. 216 of 7 June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the website https://capitrades.com, which is also available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to carry out Forex transactions and to trade CFDs on indices, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to place such transactions, users must register with the website https://capitrades.com, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. after registering, users are granted access the reserved area of the site, which is also available in Italian at the address https://secure.capitrades.com, which offers several features, including specific functions for depositing and withdrawing funds on the trading account;

iv. two types of account are mentioned on the website https://capitrades.com referred to as "Edge" and "Classic" according to the minimum deposit requested and the benefits promised;

v. the site https://capitrades.com contains generic references to "Capitrades" with alleged "headquarters" in New York and further offices in California and Canada.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://capitrades.com website and the relevant page https://secure.capitrades.comconstitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place buy and/or sale orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://capitrades.com and the respective page https://secure.capitrades.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website https://capitrades.com is available in Italian;

WHEREAS the company https://capitrades.com and the respective page https://secure.capitrades.com cannot be attributed to any entity which is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as the company "Capitrades", as mentioned on the website https://capitrades.com, is not listed on the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for licensed parties as referred to under article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which, "The commercial provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Stock brokerage firms, EU investment firms, Italian banks, EU banks and non-EU firms";

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of art. 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract abusive practices" - Consob "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the infringement";

CONSIDERING it therefore necessary, in the light of the foregoing, to adopt this Resolution immediately for reasons of urgency;

RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the website https://capitrades.com and the relevant page https://secure.capitrades.com, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the concerned parties and published in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the date of service.

15 September 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona