Resolution no. 21801

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 www.sealimited.io website and relevant https://secure.sealimited.io and https://trading.sealimited.io pages

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 www.sealimited.io website - which is active, registered by an anonymous user and available in Italian - offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies and commodities;

ii. in order to carry out the aforementioned trading transactions, the user is required to complete the following steps: register with the www.sealimited.io website through a procedure that is also available for Italian users; activate a tradingaccount; spend sums of money through the appropriate function available on the https://secure.sealimited.io page and access the additional section available on the https://trading.sealimited.io page through which a web-trading platform can be installed;

iii. in particular, six types of account are mentioned on the www.sealimited.io website: for the first five – respectively called "The Basic", "Bronze", "Silver", "Gold" and "Platinum" - the amount of minimum deposit required to open each account and the benefits related to each type of account are detailed; for the sixth category – called "Exclusive" - it states that users must "contactthe Account Manager" to obtain "more information";

iv. as to traceability, in the section entitled "Terms and Conditions" of the www.sealimited.io site it states that "this website is owned and operated by Core Pay Solution Ltd", with its stated registered office in the Commonwealth of Dominica. A contact telephone number with an Italian country code is also shown on the www.sealimited.io site, which is specifically dedicated to Italian users;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.sealimited.io website and the relevant https://secure.sealimited.io and https://trading.sealimited.io pagesconstitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place buy and/or sale orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above-described transactions, carried out through the www.sealimited.io website and relevant https://secure.sealimited.io and https://trading.sealimited.io pages, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors since the aforesaid domains are also available in Italian and there have also been reports, about them, of cold calls made to retail investors in Italy. Moreover, a contact telephone number is shown on the www.sealimited.io site with an Italian country code that is specifically dedicated to Italian users;

WHEREAS Core Pay Solution Ltd, with its stated registered address in the Commonwealth of Dominica, as referred to on the website and relevant pages, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed in the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence 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 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 www.sealimited.io website and relevant https://secure.sealimited.io and https://trading.sealimited.io pages, which constitute 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 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.

14 April 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona