Resolution no. 22739

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://baer-group.com and the page https://webtrader.baer-group.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, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING REGARD to Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (“Consolidated Law on Finance”), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from the checks carried out, it emerged that:

1. the website https://baer-group.com which is active, anonymously registered and accessible in Italian, is divided into the sections 'Home', 'Markets', 'Accounts', 'Platforms', 'Contact us' and 'Documents' and offers the possibility to trade in Forex, shares, indices, CFDs and commodities, subject to registration and opening of one of the advertised trading accounts ('Easy Start', 'Standard', 'Trader Pro', 'Professional', 'Premium' and 'VIP');
2. after registering, it is possible to access the reserved area, which consists of the sections entitled 'Deposit', 'Transfer Funds' and 'Withdrawal' and has a special function dedicated to depositing liquidity on the trading account;
3. once you have registered, you can access the trading platform available at https://webtrader.baer-group.cc;
4. as to the legal entity to which the website https://baer-group.com and the page https://webtrader.baer-group.cc in the "Terms and Conditions" document there is a generic reference to "Baer-group" and the "Contact us" page shows a non-Italian telephone number and reference to the e-mail address support@baer-group.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://baer-group.com and the page https://webtrader.baer-group.cc 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 possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account on which it is possible to issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out via the website https://baer-group.com and the page https://webtrader.baer-group.cc, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that both the website and the respective page are available in Italian and that no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with the domains from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS “Baer-group”, mentioned on this website, 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 for licensed parties as referred to under article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which “The commercial 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 through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that such 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 website https://baer-group.com and the page https://webtrader.baer-group.cc, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of 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 June 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona