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resolution



Resolution no. 22940

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 www.marketsac.com and its page https://platform.marketsac-tp.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:

i. the www.marketsac.com website, which is active and registered anonymously, offers potential investors the possibility to perform trading on the forex market and on CFDs relating to indices, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to carry out such trading transactions, users are required to register with the www.marketsac.com website and open a trading account; specifically, six types of account are available, known as "Student", "Standard", "Islamic", "Investor", "Marketsac VIP" and "Marketsac VIP Platinum" depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after completing the registration process, users may log into the reserved area of the www.marketsac.comwebsite, available at the additional Internet address https://platform.marketsac-tp.com, where there is a specific function to deposit and withdraw liquidity on the trading account;

iv the www.marketsac.com website contains the email address "support@marketsac.com" without any company reference details.

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website www.marketsac.com and the related webpage https://platform.marketsac-tp.com constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since users are offered the opportunity via the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since cold calling of Italian customers has been reported to advertise such activity on the www.marketsac.com website and on the related webpage https://platform.marketsac-tp.coml, no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with the www.marketsac.com website from Italy through Italian IP addresses and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS the www.marketsac.com website and its page https://platform.marketsac-tp.com may not be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 www.marketsac.com website and its page https://platform.marketsac-tp.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.

12 December 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona