Resolution no. 21592

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.for-tradersfx.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 website www.for-tradersfx.com, it emerged that:

i. the website is active and partially available in Italian;

ii. the website offers potential investors the opportunity to trade in currency pairs on Forex and on CFDs covering indices, commodities, shares and crude oil;

iii. in order to trade, users must register with the website - through the registration procedure which is also available to users connected from Italy - and open an online account; specifically, four types of account are available known as "Mini", "Bronze", "Silver" and "Gold", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. upon completion of the registration procedure, access is granted to the reserved area of the website where the webtrading platform is available, which may also be viewed in Italian;

v. the "Terms and conditions" available on the website state that "ForTradersFX is owned and operated by ForTradersFX Ltd", with its stated address in the Marshall Islands;

vi. in the "Contact us" section there is an email address, support@fortraderfx.com, a telephone number with a foreign dialling code and a form to request information;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21243 of 28 January 2020, which ordered the company ForTradersFx Ltd to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate website www.fortradersfx.com;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21334 of 22 April 2020, which ordered the company ForTradersFx Ltd to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate website www.fortraders-fx.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable on the domain of the www.fortradersfx.com and www.fortraders-fx.com websites, the www.for-tradersfx.com website replicates the content and graphic format of said websites;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.for-tradersfx.com website can be classed as the offer of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account on which to issue purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activities, carried out through the www.for-tradersfx.com website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, given that the website is partially unavailable in Italian and, moreover, there have been reports of unsolicited telephone calls ('cold calling') to the Italian public;

WHEREAS the company FortradersFx Ltd, with stated address in the Marshall Islands, mentioned on the www.for-tradersfx.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered 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 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 article 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 art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the website www.for-tradersfx.com, consisting in offering investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those whom it concerns and will be 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.

19 November 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona