Resolution no. 22170

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 thehttps://fullmarkets.com website

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 7th June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the https://fullmarkets.com website – which is active, registered anonymously and available in Italian – to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, commodities and shares;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://fullmarkets.com website – through a procedure that is also available for Italian users – open a trading accountand deposit the necessary funds;

iii. in particular, the https://fullmarkets.com website lists three types of account, namely "Standard", "Prime" and "Institutional";

iv. as far as traceability is concerned, the Company Beradora Ltd, based in London, is indicated at the foot of the https://fullmarkets.com website's pages;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21857 of 19 May 2021, which ordered Beradora Ltd, with its registered address in London, to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://timarkets.com website and relevant https://accounts.timarkets.com web page;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through thehttps://fullmarkets.com website constitutes the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that through the said site users are offered the opportunity to open a tradingaccount where they can place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above-described transactions, carried out through the https://fullmarkets.com website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors since the aforesaid website is available in Italian and there have been reports about it ofcold calls being made to retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS Beradora Ltd, with its registered address in London, 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 to licensed parties as referred to under 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 Italian investment 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 performed through the website https://fullmarkets.com, 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.

19 January 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona