Resolution no. 23087

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 through the www.vantage-markets.com website and related page https://secure.vantage-markets.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 checks conducted on the website www.vantage-markets.com revealed that:

1. the same is active and offers the possibility of trading forex, commodities, indices, ETFs and shares;
2. in order to be able to trade via the www.vantage-markets.com website, users must register and open one of the trading accounts through the login page https://secure.vantage-markets.com;
3. as to traceability, at the bottom of the pages of the website, www.vantage-markets.com there are references to Vantage Global Limited with registered office in Vanuatu, and in the “Legal Documents" section, the contractual documents of Vantage Global Limited can be consulted, which are proposed for acceptance to potential users, including Italian users, in the registration procedure;

HAVING REGARD to Consob Resolution no. 22587 of 8 February 2023, whereby Vantage Global Limited with registered office in Vanuatu, was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the separate website www.vantagemarkets.com and its page https://secure.vantagemarkets.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a web domain that is partially superimposable on the domain of the www.vantagemarkets.com website, the www.vantage-markets.com website replicates the content of the www.vantagemarkets.com website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.vantage-markets.com website with its page https://secure.vantage-markets.com is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services as per Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, as customers are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account on which they can place purchase and/or sell orders for financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out through the website www.vantage- markets.com and its page https://secure.vantage-markets.com, is still ongoing and is also aimed at Italian investors, given that contact with Italian customers has been reported, complaints have been received from Italian individuals who have complained, among other things, that they were unable to get their money back and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the mentioned website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the abovementioned internet 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 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. 58/1998 carried out through the www.vantage-markets.com website and its respective https://secure.vantage-markets.com webpage, 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.

24 April 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona