Resolution no. 23128

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://marketsac.eu and the related page https://platform.marketsac-tp.eu

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://marketsac.eu website, which is active, also available in Italian 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 https://marketsac.eu website and open a trading account; specifically, six types of account are available, known as "Alunno" (Student), "Standard", "Islamico" (Islamic), "Investitore" (Investor), "Marketsac VIP" and "Marketsac VIP Platinum" depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. within the reserved area of the websitehttps://marketsac.eu, also available in Italian at the additional internet addresshttps://platform.marketsac-tp.eu, there is a specific function to deposit and withdraw funds on the trading account;

iv. the https://marketsac.eu website contains the email address "support@marketsac.com" without any company reference details.

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22940 of 12 December 2023, whereby the order was given to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the www.marketsac.com website and the relevant https://platform.marketsac-tp.com web page;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22995 of 7 February 2024, whereby the order was given to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the additional https://marketsac.ltd website and the relevant https://platform.marketsac-tp.ltd web page;

WHEREAS the website https://marketsac.eu has a domain that is partially superimposable to the domain of the websites www.marketsac.com and https://marketsac.ltd as well as similar content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://marketsac.eu and the related webpage https://platform.marketsac-tp.eu 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 the website https://marketsac.eu and its page https://platform.marketsac-tp.eu are available in Italian, regarding the operation of these domains, cold calling of Italian customers has been reported to advertise such activity on the website, no mechanism has been found to block registration of the https://marketsac.eu website from Italy through Italian IP addresses and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors who reported that they were unable to recover the invested amounts;

WHEREAS the https://marketsac.eu website and its page https://platform.marketsac-tp.eu 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 https://marketsac.eu website and its page https://platform.marketsac-tp.eu, 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.

22 May 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona