Resolution no. 22954

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 committed via the www.euroxtradefx.com website

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:

i. the euroxtradefx.com website, which is active and available in Italian, provides, subject to the opening of an "MT5 trading account", the opportunity to trade forex and CFDs on underlying assets such as indices, shares, oil and precious metals, through the "Metatrader 5" platform; ii. the home page of the website also mentions the possibility of buying "the best cryptoassets in a few minutes" through the trading account; iii. with regard to the legal entity to which the website in question refers, in the ''About Us" section mention is made of a "multi-award-winning Broker" called "EUROXTRADEFX ’; in the ''Website Terms and Conditions'' and in the ''Client Agreement'' reference is made to "EuroXTradeFX''; in the footer of the website it is specified that ''EuroXTradeFX'' is a trading name of EuroXTradeFX Limited (EuroXTradeFX), incorporated in St Vincent and the Grenadines"; in the footer it is also indicated that said entity would be "wholly owned by EuroXTradeFXFinancial Services Pty Ltd, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom; the e-mail address is also present on the websiteinfo@euroxtradefx.com ;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.euroxtradefx.com website may be considered as the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the aforesaid domain offers users the opportunity of opening a trading account against which orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments may be issued;

WHEREAS the afore-mentioned activity, carried out through the www.euroxtradefx.com website, is aimed at Italian investors, given that said domain is available in Italian, complaints have been received from Italian investors who have reported telephone contact with alleged Italian collaborators from "EuroXTradeFX", transmission of e-mails in Italian and documentation in Italian and have also complained about the impossibility of obtaining a refund of the sums spent;

WHEREAS such activity carried out through the www.euroxtradefx.com website cannot be attributed to any entity that is 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 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 www.euroxtradefx.com website, 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.

20 December 2023

p. THE CHAIRMAN
Maria Chiara Mosca