Resolution no. 21999

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://pluscfd.co and the relevant page https://accounts.pluscfd.co

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 the checks carried out, it emerged that:

i. the website https://pluscfd.co, which is available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity, after opening an account via the registration process, which is also available to Italian users, to trade CFDs on forex operations, gold, indices and shares;

ii. in order to carry out such trades, users are invited to register with the website, then access the personal area at https://accounts.pluscfd.co and open an account by transferring funds; in particular, the advertised accounts "Micro", "Standard", "Premium" and "Vip" differ according to the minimum deposit requirement and relevant conditions;

iii. through the website’s reserved area, which has no mechanisms for blocking the registration of users connecting from Italy, users are then redirected to the tradingplatform;

iv. the company Plus CFD Ltd, with alleged registered office in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is stated on the website’s pages.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through this website can be classed as the provision of investment services as per art. 1, paragraph 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account and placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://pluscfd.co and the relevant page https://accounts.pluscfd.co, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website is written in Italian and there have been reports of cold calling of retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the company named "Plus CFD Ltd" mentioned on the website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed in 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 to licensed parties as referred to under article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which "The professional provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Italian investment 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 article 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

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

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. 58/1998 carried out through the website https://pluscfd.co and the relevant page https://accounts.pluscfd.co, constituted by 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