Resolution no. 22177

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 domains https://eurotrades.com and https://client.eurotrades.com

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 website https://eurotrades.com offers the possibility, after registration, of performing trades on CFDs on currencies, shares, indices and commodities and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF);

ii. in order to be able to trade, users must register with the site at the URL https://client.eurotrades.com and open an account and finally deposit the necessary funds. In particular, four types of accounts are advertised, referred to as "Micro", "Classic", "Premium" and "V.I.P.", which differ according to the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. the contractual terms of the site https://eurotrades.com make reference to the company Eurotrades.com, with stated registered address in the Marshall Islands.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the domains https://eurotrades.com and https://client.eurotrades.com is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account wherein it is possible to perform buy/sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out by Eurotrades.com via the websites https://eurotrades.com and https://client.eurotrades.com, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the homepage of the site https://eurotrades.com contains an invitation to register and a registration form for opening an account with "Eurotrades.com" which allows users to select Italy as their country of residence;

WHEREAS "Eurotrades.com", as mentioned on this website https://eurotrades.com, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed on the dedicated register maintained by Consob pursuant to Article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence in order to provide investment services, 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 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 that the infringement cease";

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 58/1998 carried out through the websites https://eurotrades.com and https://client.eurotrades.com, consisting in 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 published in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days.

27 January 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona