Resolution no. 21794

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 website www.stockcore.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 checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the website www.stockcore.co, which is active and registered anonymously, offers potential investors the possibility to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, commodities, shares and cryptocurrencies;

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

iii. the reserved area - used, among other things, to access the trading platform – of the website www.stockore.co is also available in Italian;

iv. three types of account are mentioned on the website www.stockore.co, named "Newbies", "Standard" and "Premium", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

v. as regards its traceability, the "Terms and Conditions" section of the website states that "Stocklux is a trade name of Konstos Markets LTD […] a company registered in British Virgin Islands";

vi. the "Support" contains a contact form and the email addresses support@StockCore.co; compliance@Stockcore.co.

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21656 of 18 December 2020, whereby Konstos Markets LTD was ordered to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate domain www.stocklux.co;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.stockcore.co constitutes 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 through the website www.stockcore.co;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.stockcore.co, is ongoing and targeted at Italian investors, given that reports have been received of cold calling of Italian investors and that it was ascertained that the reserved area of the website - used, among other things, to access the trading platform - it is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS Konstos Markets LTD as mentioned on the website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it 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 www.stockcore.co, 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 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.

8 April 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona