Resolution no. 22842

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://tradeontop.com and the page https://platform.tradeontop.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 the checks carried out, it emerged that:

1. the https://tradeontop.com website, which is also active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies, indices, shares, commodities and forex instruments;
2. in order to place such trading transactions, users must register with the website through a procedure that is also available to users connecting from Italy and open an account on which to deposit funds; specifically, five types of accounts are advertised, depending on the minimum deposit and benefits, called "Student", "Standard", “Investitore” (Investor), “VIP" and "VIPPLATINO” (Platinum VIP);
3. following registration, a web trading platform is displayed, located on the pagehttps://platform.tradeontop.com, available in the Italian version, where it is possible to "trade currencies, cryptocurrencies, shares, indices, commodities, ETFs";
4. with regard to the legal entity that was found to operate the website in question, in the "Terms and Conditions" it is specified that “TRADEONTOP is owned and managed by TRADEONTOP Limited. The operational address is: 80 Cheapside, London EC2V 6EE, United Kingdom”; the e-mail address support@tradeontop.com can be found on the website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://tradeontop.com and the page https://platform.tradeontop.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 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 through the https://tradeontop.com website and its page https://platform.tradeontop.com is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domain is available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses. Moreover, reports have been received of investment solicitation by cold calling towards retail Italian investors;

WHEREAS “Tradeontop Limited”, as mentioned on the website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it 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 to provide investment services and activities 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 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 carried out through the website https://tradeontop.com and the page https://platform.tradeontop.com, consisting in the offering 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.

9 October 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona