Resolution no. 23274

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 through the website https://aquillafx.com and its page https://client.aquillafx.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://aquillafx.com website - which is active, registered anonymously and available in Italian - to trade in contracts for difference (CFDs) with underlying currencies, shares, commodities, indices and digital currencies via a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://aquillafx.com, and open a trading account; specifically, four types of account are available, known as "Micro", "Standard", "Premium" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after completing the registration process, users may log into the reserved area of the https://aquillafx.com website available at the further website domain https://client.aquillafx.com;

iv. the "Contact Us" page of the https://aquillafx.com website contains a form for requesting information and the email address "contact@aquillafx.com ".

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://aquillafx.com website and the related https://client.aquillafx.com webpage constitutes 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 via the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity is still ongoing and is also addressed to Italian investors, since the https://aquillafx.com website is also available in Italian, and cold calling of Italian consumers has been reported and no mechanism has been found to block registration with the https://aquillafx.com website by users attempting to register from Italy through Italian IP addresses. In addition, numerous complaints have been received from Italian investors who have complained about their losses.

WHEREAS the https://aquillafx.com website and its page https://client.aquillafx.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 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 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://aquillafx.com website and its https://client.aquillafx.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.

3 October 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona