Resolution no. 22003

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.nata-trade.com website and https://webtrader.preminvtradplatform.com webpage

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, it emerged that:

i. the www.nata-trade.com website, which is active and may be consulted in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to place orders on the Forex market and trade CFDs on indices, commodities and bitcoin through a dedicated platform called Nata Trade Webtrader;

ii. in order to carry out such trades, users must register with the website via an online procedure and open one of the advertised accounts; more specifically, five types of accounts are available, known as "Micro", "Standard", "Silver", "Gold" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit and benefits promised;

iii. after registering, users may access the reserved area of the site, which is also available in Italian at the address https://webtrader.preminvtradplatform.com, and which contains a range of features including specific functions for depositing funds into the trading account, sending the documentation for account verification, as well as to access the trading platform;

iv. as to the website’s traceability, the contractual terms indicate the company Nata Trade Limited with alleged offices in New Zealand;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21927 of 23 June 2021, which ordered the company BIM LLC to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website www.natatrade.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable on that of the above www.natatrade.com website, the www.nata-trade.com domain replicates the content and graphic format of the said www.natatrade.com site with the exception of the indication of the company BIM LLC in the footer of the latter site;

WHEREAS the activity conducted via the www.nata-trade.com website and the https://webtrader.preminvtradplatform.com webpage can be classed as the provision of investment services as per article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account and placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activities, conducted via the www.nata-trade.com website and the https://webtrader.preminvtradplatform.com webpage, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, since the website is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS the company Nata Trade Limited mentioned on the www.nata- trade.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed on the register kept 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 conducted via the www.nata-trade.com website and the https://webtrader.preminvtradplatform.com webpage, consisting in offering and providing 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.

15 September 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona