Resolution no. 22773

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 via the website https://fpeurope.com and its page https://client.fpeurope.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, 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 checks on the web, it emerged that:

• the website https://fpeurope.com - which is active and available in Italian through automatic translation systems - offers potential investors the possibility to trade CFDs on currencies, futures, indices, shares and commodities via a trading platform;
• in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://fpeurope.com through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds. After registering on the website, users are granted access to the reserved area at https://client.fpeurope.com, which contains a function for depositing liquidity on the trading account;
• as to the traceability of the website https://fpeurope.com, the pages of the website and the relevant legal documents contain several references to "FP Europe", whose email address info@fpmeurope.com is indicated on the contact page;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://fpeurope.com and the respective page https://client.fpeurope.com 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 aforementioned activity, carried out via the website https://fpeurope.com and its page https://client.fpeurope.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domains are available in Italian through automatic translation systems, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses. In addition, contact with Italian customers using remote communication techniques was reported and complaints were received from Italian savers who claimed that they were unable to get their money back;

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

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 breach 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 over the Internet without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the breach”;

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 conducted through the website https://fpeurope.com and the respective page https://client.fpeurope.com, constituted by the offer and 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.

12 July 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona