Resolution no. 22539

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 websiteshttps://capitalbiz.ioand https://capitalbase.io and the respective webpage https://webtrader.c-base.cc.

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 checks ascertained that the websites https://capitalbiz.io and https://capitabase.io:

i. have the same structure and content, are also available in Italian and have references to "Evolve Consulting LCC";

ii. are divided into sections called "Support", "Markets", "Trading Platform", "Investing", "Education", "Analys" and "Company" and offer the possibility – after opening an account whose name depends on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised, ranging from "Bronze", "Silver" "Gold", "Platinum" to "Diamond" – to trade on forex operations, and contracts on indices, commodities, stocks and digital currencies;

iii. in order to trade, it is necessary to register with the site through an online procedure through which users can access the reserved area where it is possible to create a trading account, make deposits into the trading account and select the "Webtrader” link, through which users are redirected to the trading platform at the domain https://webtrader.c-base.cc;

iv. as regards the traceability of the sites in question, the footers of the websites state that "This website is owned and operated by Evolve Consulting LLC, company registration number 2352 LLC and registered address First Floor St. Vincent Bank Ltd Building James Street Kingstown St. Vincent and Grenadines", and the "Contact and Service" section also contains an e-mail address, respectively, support@capitalbiz.io and support@capitalbase.io.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the above websites may be considered as the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the domain offers users the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments may be issued;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the websites https://capitalbiz.io and https://capitalbase.io and the respective webpage https://webtrader.c-base.cc, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the domains are available in Italian, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register from Italy/through Italian IP addresses and, moreover, complaints were received from Italian savers;

WHEREAS “Evolve Consulting LLC”, as referenced on the above websites, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on the dedicated register held by Consob pursuant to art. 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 article 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 unauthorised provision of investment services” - Consob “may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified 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 no. 58/98 carried out through the websites https://capitalbiz.io and https://capitalbase.io and the respective page https://webtrader.c- base.cc consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the all 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.

6 December 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona