Resolution no. 22729

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://toroprofit247.io and respective web page https://client.toroprofit247.io

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://toroprofit247.io, 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 and open a trading account;
3. after registration, customers may log into the reserved area of the website at the URL https://client.toroprofit247.io, which is available in Italian and where there is a specific feature for depositing and withdrawing funds on the trading account;
4. concerning the traceability, the website https://toroprofit247.io and the page https://client.toroprofit247.io contain generic references to the trademark “ToroProfit”, without reference to a specific legal entity. The contact section contains the email address support@toroprofit247.io;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22636 of March 17, 2023 which ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website https://toroprofit.io and the respective page https://client.toroprofit.io;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://toroprofit247.io and the relevant page https://client.toroprofit247.io 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 such activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website https://toroprofit247.io and the respective page https://client.toroprofit247.io were found to be available in Italian and no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with the website https://toroprofit247.io from Italy via Italian IP addresses. Moreover, an Italian investor has transmitted copy of an email in Italian sent to him by “ToroProfit”. Furthermore, Italian customers have complained about not being able to obtain a refund of deposited capital;

WHEREAS the abovementioned internet domains could not be attributed to any party authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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://toroprofit247.io and the relevant page https://client.toroprofit247.io, 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.

8 June 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona