Resolution no. 23674 of 24/09/2025

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 committed via the https://afex-markets.com website and its page https://web-traderx.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. potential investors are offered the opportunity, through the https://afex-markets.com website – which is active, and anonymously registered – to trade CFDs on currencies, crypto-currencies, commodities, shares and indices using a dedicated trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://afex-markets.com website, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account in which to deposit funds: specifically, four different types of accounts ("Standard", "Professional", "Business" and "Business Plus") are advertised on the website, which differ, inter alia, according to the required minimum deposit. After registering, users gain access to the reserved area at the URL https://web-traderx.com, which is also directly available in Italian, where they can, among other things, deposit funds into their trading account and access the trading platform;

iii. as to the traceability of the operations carried out on the website https://afex-markets.com, the website contains references to "Afex Markets" and the email address support@afex-markets.com;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22845 of 9 October 2023, whereby it was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.afexmarket.com website and its https://client.afexmarket.com webpage;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 23550 of 7 May 2025, whereby the order was given to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website www.afexmarkets-it.com and its pages https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com and https://webtrader.alpha247-it.com;

WHEREAS the website https://afex-markets.com has a domain that is partially superimposable to the domain of the websites www.afexmarket.com and www.afexmarkets-it.com as well as similar content;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://afex-markets.com website and its https://web-traderx.com page constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the opportunity, through the aforementioned domains, to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the https://afex-markets.com website and its https://web-traderx.com webpage is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domains are available in Italian, the contents of the page https://web-traderx.com are also directly available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration to the same domains by users attempting to register from Italy through Italian IP addresses. The https://afex-markets.com website also contains untrue references to an alleged authorisation issued by Consob and an Italian office;

WHEREAS the https://afex-markets.com website and its page https://web-traderx.com may not be attributed to any entity 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 commercial 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 activities in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in breach of Article 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD to the provisions of Article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services" - pursuant to which 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 that the 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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 conducted via the https://afex-markets.com website and its https://web-traderx.com page, constituted by the offer 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.

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona