Resolution no. 22401

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 via the website https://uetrades.com and the respective webpage https://secure.uetrades.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 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the website https://uetrades.com, which is active and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade on the forex market and trade CFDs on, inter alia, indices, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://uetrades.com, then open an account and deposit the necessary funds; specifically, three types of account are advertised, known as "ECN", "Standard" and "Premium", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after registering on the website https://uetrades.com, users are granted access the reserved area, which is available at the address https://secure.uetrades.com, which provides several functions, including one for depositing funds on the trading account;

iv. as for the traceability of the website https://uetrades.com, it only contains generic references to "UeTrades";

v. the "Contacts" section contains a form for requesting information and the e-mail address info@uetrades.com.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://uetrades.com and the relevant page https://secure.uetrades.com is deemed to constitute 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 possibility through the aforementioned domain to open a trading account and place buy and/or sale orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website https://uetrades.com is also available in Italian and, moreover, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register on the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses. In addition, there have been reports of Italian customers being contacted using remote communication techniques (so-called cold calling) and complaints have also been received from Italian retail investors regarding the initiatives promoted through the website https://uetrades.com and the relevant page https://secure.uetrades.com.

WHEREAS the activity cannot be attributed to any party that is 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 authorised parties as referred to under 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 art. 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 abusive practices" - 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 infringement";

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://uetrades.com website and its https://secure.uetrades.com webpage, consisting in offering and providing 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.

13 July 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona