Resolution no. 22599

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 https://europeanfx.co and the relevant pages https://client.europeanfx.co and https://trade.europeanfx.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:

1. the website https://europeanfx.co, which is active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade contracts for difference (CFD) on currencies, cryptocurrencies, shares, indices and commodities;
2. registration on the page https://client.europeanfx.co and the opening of a trading account are required to carry out trading operations. In particular, five types of account are mentioned, named "Standard", "Silver ", "Gold ", "Platinum " and " VIP " depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;
3. after registering, the customer may log into the reserved area of the website, available in Italian and from which it is possible, among other things, to reach the trading platform hosted on the page https://trade.europeanfx.co;
4. concerning the traceability, the contractual terms of the website https://europeanfx.co mention the company EuropeanFX Limited, with offices declared in Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and the contacts of the site indicate the following email addresses:support@europeanfx.co.com, affiliates@europeanfx.co.com and rewards@europeanfx.co.com.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://europeanfx.co website and relative https://client.europeanfx.co and https://trade.europeanfx.co pages constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the opportunity through the said domains of opening a trading account where they can place buy and/or sell orders for financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the https://europeanfx.co website, and its pages https://client.europeanfx.co and https://trade.europeanfx.co are available in Italian and, moreover, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register from Italy through Italian IP addresses. In addition, reports have been received of investment solicitation by cold calling towards retail investors in Italy, and complaints have been received from Italian subjects;

WHEREAS the https://europeanfx.co website and relative https://client.europeanfx.co and https://trade.europeanfx.co pages cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public since the company called EuropeanFX Limited, with stated addresses in Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong,

mentioned on the website https://europeanfx.co, is not listed on the 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 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 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 no. 58/1998 carried out through the website https://europeanfx.coand the relevant pages https://client.europeanfx.coand https://trade.europeanfx.co, which constitute the provision of 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.

14 February 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona