Resolution no. 22601

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://theactivetrade.com and the relevant page https://client.theactivetrade.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 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://theactivetrade.com - which is active and also available in Italian - offers potential investors the possibility of trading currencies, indices, commodities and shares via a dedicated trading platform;
2. in order to place such trading transactions, users must register with the website https://theactivetrade.com, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account on which to deposit funds; specifically, 4 different types of accounts are advertised on the website ("Argento", "Oro", "Diamante" and "Vip" ["Silver", "Gold", "Diamond" and "VIP"]), the characteristics of which vary, among other things, according to the necessary deposit; After registering, users can access the reserved area of the website at https://client.theactivetrade.com, where they can, among other things, deposit funds on the account and access the trading platform;
3. as for the https://theactivetrade.com website’s traceability, there are references on the website to "The Active Traders Ltd" with its alleged registered address in the United Kingdom;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22417 of 20 July 2022, whereby "The Active Traders Ltd" was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website https://theactivetraders.com and respective page https://client.theactivetraders.com;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22470 of 5 October 2022, whereby "The Active Traders Ltd" was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website https://theactivetraderz.com and respective page https://client.theactivetraderz.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially similar to the domain of the aforementioned sites https://theactivetraders.com and https://theactivetraderz.com, the site https://theactivetrade.com replicates the content and graphic format of the former websites;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://theactivetrade.com website and its https://client.theactivetrade.com page 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 users are offered the opportunity through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out through the website https://theactivetrade.com and the respective webpage https://client.theactivetrade.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that said website is available in Italian, and that cold calling of Italian consumers has been reported and that no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the company mentioned on the website https://theactivetrade.com is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since 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 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 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 https://theactivetrade.com website and relevant https://client.theactivetrade.com page, constituting the offer and 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