Resolution no. 23173

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://expo-trust.net and the related page https://user.expotrust.net

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 https://expo-trust.net website - which is active, also available in Italian and registered anonymously - offers potential investors the possibility to perform trading on shares, bonds, mutual funds, futures and CFDs relating to indices, shares, cryptocurrencies and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://expo-trust.net - through a procedure available, also to Italian users, on the page https://user.expotrust.net, open an account and access the trading platform;

iii. in particular, the website https://expo-trust.net mentions four types of account called, depending on the benefits offered, "Standard", "Ultimate", "Pro" and "Elite";

iv. as to traceability, the "Terms and Conditions" of the https://expo-trust.net website indicate that the contractual counterparty of the user operating through the aforementioned platform is "Expo Trust";

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://expo-trust.net and the related webpage https://user.expotrust.net 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 activity described above, carried out via the https://expo-trust.net website and its related page https://user.expotrust.net is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the https://expo-trust.net website and related page https://user.expotrust.net are also available in Italian and reports have also been received of investment solicitation by cold calling retail investors in Italy aimed at making them adhere to the initiatives promoted on the https://expo-trust.net. website. Furthermore, within the website https://expo-trust.net, no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with the same website from Italy via Italian IP addresses. Finally, a copy of the conversations held in Italian between operators of the website https://expo-trust.net and Italian investors was acquired and complaints were received from Italian investors who complained about the impossibility of obtaining a refund of the sums deposited to trade with "Expo Trust";

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the website https://expo-trust.net and on its related pagehttps://user.expotrust.net are not 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://expo-trust.net website and its page https://user.expotrust.net, 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.

19 June 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona