Resolution no. 23197

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://24cfdcap.net and the related page https://client.24cfdcap.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 website https://24cfdcap.net is active, available in Italian and offers the possibility of trading forex, CFDs, commodities, indices and digital currencies;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website through a procedure that is also available to Italian users and then open a trading account.

iii. after completing registration, users can log into the reserved area of the website https://24cfdcap.net, available at the additional internet addresshttps://client.24cfdcap.net where they can make deposits on the trading account and access the trading platform;

iv. as to traceability, in the website https://24cfdcap.net there are generic references to "OneCapital CFDS".

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://24cfdcap.net website and the its page https://client.24cfdcap.net 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 operations undertaken via the website https://24cfdcap.net and the relative page https://client.24cfdcap.net are still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website is also available in Italian, there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy; it was further noted that no mechanisms were found to block registration by users attempting to register on the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses, with reports received from investors who have complained, among other things, that they were unable to get their money back;

WHEREAS the https://24cfdcap.net website and its page https://client.24cfdcap.net 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, 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://24cfdcap.net website and its page https://client.24cfdcap.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 publication.

10 July 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona