Resolution no. 23143

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://cfd-active.com and the related page https://client.cfd-active.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 website https://cfd-active.com is active and offers the possibility of trading forex, CFDs, indices, digital currencies and commodities;

ii. to carry out such trading, users must register on the website through the domain https://client.cfd-active.com, and subsequently open a trading account;

iii. as to traceability, in the website https://cfd-active.com there are generic references to "CFD Active".

HAVING REGARD to Resolution no. 23099 of 2.5.2023, whereby "CFD Active" was ordered to cease the breach of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance committed via the separate https://cfdactive.com website and its page https://client.cfdactive.com, featuring structure and content similar to that of the https://cfd-active.com website and its page https://client.cfd-active.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://cfd-active.com website and the its page https://client.cfd-active.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 website https://cfd-active.com and its page https://client.cfd-active.com are also available in Italian via automatic translation, given that contact with Italian customers has been reported, complaints have been received from Italian investors and that no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register on the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the https://cfd-active.com website and its page https://client.cfd- active.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 nvestment 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, thus an 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 must 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 https://cfd-active.com website and its page https://client.cfd-active.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 publication.

5 June 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona