Resolution no. 20890

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 performed through the www.marketspremium.com website

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 June 7, 1974, and subsequent amendments and additions;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of February 24, 1998 (‘Consolidated Law on Finance’) and subsequent amendments and additions;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the www.marketspremium.com website, it emerged that:

i. the www.marketspremium.com website, registered anonymously, is also available in Italian and has no mechanism in place to prevent the registration of Italian users;

ii. potential investors, subject to prior registration and the opening of an account, are offered the opportunity of trading online in ‘Forex, commodities, indices, shares and cryptocurrencies’ via a platform called ‘Metatrader5’;

iii. in order to perform the trading transactions, a investment of money is required, to be paid into the account opened online; in particular, there are various types of account available, with different names according to the minimum deposit required and the promised benefits, (‘mini’, silver’, ‘gold’, ‘platinum’ and ‘VIP’);

iv. At the footer of every page of the www.marketspremium.com website and in the’ Terms and conditions’ it is stated that the website is ‘owned and operated’ by the ‘Silver Wolf Limited’ company, with declared offices in the Marshall Islands; in the ‘About us’ and ‘Contact’ sections, reference is made to the ‘marketspremium’ brand.

v. The Silver Wolf Limited company has already been the subject of an ‘investor protection warning’ published on Consob informa no. 39/2017 of October 30, 2017, and the addressee of an order issued pursuant to Art. 7-Octies of the Consolidated law on Finance with Resolution 20364 of March 28, 2018, in relation to the activity carried out through the www.fxtrade777.com website;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the activity at issue - still carried out thorough the aforesaid websites - qualifies as the provision of investment services as referred to in Art. 1, para. 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the aforementioned operations, still available on the www.marketspremium.com website, are addressed to the Italian investing public, insofar as the said website is also available in Italian;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the entity mentioned on the websites is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the dedicated register held by CONSOB pursuant to art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for authorised entities as referred to under Art. 18, para. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which, ‘The professional provision of investment services and activities for the public is reserved for investment firms and banks’;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services involving financial instruments to the Italian public, in infringement of Art. 18, para. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to art. 7-octies 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 therefore pursuant to this decree: a) make public, even by way of a precaution, the circumstance that the party is not authorised to carry out the activity indicated by article 1, paragraph 5; b) order that the infringement cease’;

CONSIDERING it therefore necessary in the light of the foregoing to immediately and urgently adopt this Resolution;

HEREBY RESOLVES:

The order is issued to cease the infringement of Art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 performed via the www.marketspremium.com website, consisting of the offer and the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those concerned 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.

April 10^th, 2019

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona