Resolution no. 22637

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

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.vip, which is active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade contracts for differences (CFDs) on currencies, digital currencies, shares, indices and commodities;
2. in order to carry out such trades, users must register with the page https://client.europeanfx.vip and open a trading account. In particular, five types of account are mentioned on the website, 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.vip;
4. concerning the traceability, the contractual terms of the website https://europeanfx.vip mention the company EuropeanFX™ Markets Limited, with reported offices in Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and the contacts of the website indicate the following email addresses: support@europeanfx.co.com, affiliates@europeanfx.co.com and rewards@europeanfx.co.com.

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22599 of 14 February 2023, which ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website https://europeanfx.co and the respective pages https://client.europeanfx.co and https://trade.europeanfx.co;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is similar to the domain of the aforementioned website https://europeanfx.co, the website https://europeanfx.vip replicates its content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://europeanfx.vip and the respective pages https://client.europeanfx.vip and https://trade.europeanfx.vip 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 said domains, of opening a trading account where they can place buy and/or sell orders for financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website https://europeanfx.vip and the respective pages https://client.europeanfx.vip and https://trade.europeanfx.vip were found to be available in Italian; Furthermore, complaints have been received of cold calling of Italian savers and no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with the website https://client.europeanfx.vip from Italy via Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the website https://europeanfx.vip and the respective pages https://client.europeanfx.vip and https://trade.europeanfx.vip cannot be attributed to any entity which is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as the company EuropeanFX™ Markets Limited, as mentioned on the website https://europeanfx.vip, 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 provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services" - pursuant to which 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.vip and the relevant pages https://client.europeanfx.vip and https://trade.europeanfx.vip, constituted by 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.

17 March 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona