Resolution no. 21842

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.optimarket.co and the page https://optimarket.trade

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.optimarket.co website, which is active and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility negotiate on the forex market and to trade CFDs, futures, indices, shares and commodities;

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

iii. in particular, two types of account are mentioned on the website www.optimarket.co, known as "Trainee" and "Expert", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. after registering, users can access the reserved area of the site available at https://optimarket.co/sign-up/ where several features are available, including a specific function for depositing and withdrawing funds relative to the trading account;

v. the page https://optimarket.co/sign-up is identical in graphic format and content to the page https://optimarket.trade, which contains solely a form for registration in order to open a trading account with "optimarket", through which users, using their credentials, can access the reserved area;

vi. at the bottom of the pages of the website www.optimarket.co, reference is made to the company Donnybrook Consulting Ltd, with alleged registered address in the Dominican Republic;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21680 of 14 January 2021, no. 21761 of 11 March 2021 and no 21783 of 31 March 2021, whereby Donnybrook Consulting Ltd, with declared registered office in Dominica, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate domains https://energymarkets.io, https://energy-markets.cc and the relevant page webtrader.energy-markets.cc; https://eurofx.trade as well as https://bid-broker-stocks.io and https://bid-broker-stocks.cc;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.optimarket.co and the page https://optimarket.trade 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;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.optimarket.co and https://optimarket.trade, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the aforementioned domains are also available in Italian;

WHEREAS Donnybrook Consulting Ltd, with declared registered office in Dominica, 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 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 art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 performed through the www.optimarket.co website and the page https://optimarket.trade consisting of the offering and provision of investment services and transactions 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.

12 May 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona