Resolution no. 23038

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 https://free-tradecfd.com website and its https://client.free-tradecfd.com page

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA

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 https://free-tradecfd.com website offers potential investors the opportunity to trade Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on currencies, cryptocurrencies, shares, indices and commodities;

ii. to carry out such trading, users must register on the website and subsequently open a trading account. In particular, four account types are offered ("Micro ", " Standard ", "Premium " and " VIP ");

iii. after registering, users may access the reserved area of the website, available on the domain https://client.free-tradecfd.com, which contains, among others, a function dedicated to making deposits and where it is possible to access the trading platform;

iv. as to traceability, "Free Trade CFD" is generically mentioned on the https://free-tradecfd.com website and a contact email address contact@free-tradecfd.com is mentioned, as well as a "head office located in Oud Metha, Dubai".

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22882 of 8 November 2023, whereby the order was given to "Free Trade CFD" to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate https://freetrade-cfd.com website and the relevant https://client.freetrade-cfd.com page;

WHEREAS the website https://free-tradecfd.com and the page https://client.free- tradecfd.com have domains that are partially superimposable on those of the website https://freetrade-cfd.com and the page https://client.freetrade-cfd.com as well as similar structure and content;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://free-tradecfd.com website and the its page https://client.free-tradecfd.com is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the above domain allows users to trade financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the websitehttps://free-tradecfd.com is also available in Italian via automatic translation, there have been reports of contact being made with Italian investors, and moreover no mechanism was found that blocked registration by users attempting to register on the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the https://free-tradecfd.com website and its page https://client.free-tradecfd.com may not be attributed to any entity 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 activities 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 provisions of Article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services" - pursuant to which 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 infringement";

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. 58/1998, committed via the https://free-tradecfd.com website and the page https://client.free-tradecfd.com and consisting in offering and providing 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.

13 March 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona