Resolution no. 22355

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.galantrade.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 24th 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.galantrade.co website, which is active and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade on the forex market as well as trading shares and CFDs relating, amongst other things, to indices and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.galantrade.co website by opening an account and depositing the necessary funds; specifically, five types of account are advertised, known as "Micro", "Standard", "Silver", "Gold" and "VIP", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. as far as traceability is concerned, there are generic references, in the "Terms and Conditions" section of the website, to the company named "VIGO AND CO LLC";

iv. the "Contacts" section contains a form for requesting information and several e-mail addresses (support@galantrade.com, compliance@galantrade.com, backoffice@galantrade.com).

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22044 of 13 October 2021, which ordered VIGO AND CO LLC to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website www.onirofx.com;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22153 of 22 December 2021, whereby VIGO AND CO LLC was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.level5x.com website and relevant https://webtrader.level5x.compage;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22197 of 2 February 2022, whereby VIGO AND CO LLC was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://www.galicfx.com website and relevant https://webtrader.galicfx.com page;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22317 of 27 April 2022, whereby VIGO AND CO LLC was ordered to cease its infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate website www.galantrade.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the websitewww.galantrade.co is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a tradingaccount and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website www.galantrade.co is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS "VIGO AND CO LLC", mentioned on the www.galantrade.co website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear to be enrolled on the register kept 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 authorised 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 carried out through the website www.galantrade.co, constituted by the 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.

9 June 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona