Resolution no. 21845

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.uniteex.co and the relevant page https://client.uniteex.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.uniteex.co, which is active and registered by the company Demure Consulting Ltd with declared registered addressed in the Commonwealth of Dominica, offers potential investors the opportunity to negotiate on the forex market and trade CFDs on cryptocurrencies, indices, shares and commodities;

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

iii. on completion of the registration procedure, access is granted to the reserved area of the website https://client.uniteex.co, which contains a range of functionalities, including the use of the trading platform;

iv. three types of account are mentioned on the website www.uniteex.co, referred to as "Bronze", "Gold" and "Platinum", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

v. generic references are made to "Uniteex Inc" on the website www.uniteex.co, without any indication of the address of the registered address, as well as to three e-mail addresses "support@uniteex.com, compliance@uniteex.co, appointment@uniteex.co".

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.uniteex.co website and the relevant https://client.uniteex.copage constitutes 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 aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.uniteex.co and the relevant page https://client.uniteex.co, is ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, insofar it is also possible for Italian citizens to register and the reserved area of the website is available in Italian;

WHEREAS the website www.uniteex.co and the relevant page https://client.uniteex.co cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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.uniteex.co website and relevant https://client.uniteex.co page, constituting the offer and provision of investment services and activities 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