Resolution no. 22093

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 www.vibeinv24.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 7th June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

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

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website www.vibeinv24.com to trade CFDs, indices and commodities through a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.vibeinv24.com website and open a trading account to deposit funds in;

iii. specifically, five types of account (“Green”, “Premium”, “Platinum”, “Executive” and “Presidential”) are advertised on the www.vibeinv24.com website, which differ, amongst other things, according to the minimum deposit required;

iv. as for the www.vibeinv24.com website’s traceability, the home page and all the pages on the site specify that “Vibeinv is a brand name of Vibeinv Invest Limited”, a company based in the Marshall Islands;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21939 of 1 July 2021, whereby “Vibeinv Invest Limited” was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.vibeinv.com website;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22043 of 13 October 2021, whereby the said “Vibeinv Invest Limited” was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.vibeinvv.com website;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable on those of the aforementioned www.vibeinv.com and www.vibeinvv.com websites, the www.vibeinv24.com site replicates the content and graphic format of the said www.vibeinv.com and www.vibeinvv.com sites;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.vibeinv24.com is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.vibeinv24.com website, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the company Vibeinv Invest Limited, with its registered office in the Marshall Islands, mentioned on the www.vibeinv24.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not entered in the register kept by Consob pursuant to Article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant authorisation to provide investment services and activities as per 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 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 www.vibeinv24.com website, consisting in the offering and 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.

25 November 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona