Resolution no. 23304

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://capital4it.co.com website

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 website https://capital4it.co.com to trade on "a wide range of markets ... over 1200 instruments on FX, indices, shares, energy and commodities and much more besides";

to carry out such trading, users must open a trading account; In particular, two types of account are proposed ("Razor" and "Standard");

as to traceability, in the website https://capital4it.co.com, there are generic references to "Capital4it Ltd".

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 23086 of 24 April 2024, whereby the order was given to "Capital4it Ltd" to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.capital4it.io website and the relevant https://panel.capital4it.io web page;

WHEREAS the website https://capital4it.co.com has a domain that is partially superimposable to the domain of the website, www.capital4it.io as well as similar content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://capital4it.co.com website 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 the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website https://capital4it.co.com is also available in Italian via automatic translation, there have been reports of contact being made with Italian investors; Reports have also been received from Italian parties who have complained about the impossibility of obtaining a refund of the sums used;

WHEREAS the website https://capital4it.co.comcannot be linked to any entity authorised to engage in the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public, since the company "Capital4it Ltd", referred to on the above-mentioned domain, does not appear on the register kept by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

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 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. 58/1998, committed via the https://capital4it.co.com website 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.

29 October 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona