Resolution no. 23306

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://tradingrepublica.com and its page https://cfd.traderepublicatrading.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 via the website https://tradingrepublica.com – which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian through an automatic translation system incorporated into the website – to trade CFDs on commodities, shares and derivative financial contracts linked to indices;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://tradingrepublica.com - through a process that is also available, also for users connected from Italy/through Italian IP addresses, on the page https://cfd.traderepublicatrading.com, which is directly accessible from the homepage of the website https://tradingrepublica.com - open an account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, the https://tradingrepublica.com website lists six types of account, referred to as "Process ", "Classic", "Oro (popolare) - Gold (popular)", "Platino (Consigliato) - Platinum (Advised) ", "VIP " and "Prestigio - Prestige", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as to traceability, at the footer of the homepage of the website https://tradingrepublica.com and in the "Terms and Conditions" of the same domain, "Trade Republica" is mentioned without any further information regarding the possible corporate form or registered office. A contact e-mail address (support@re-publictradefinance) is provided on the website https://tradingrepublica.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://tradingrepublica.com and the respective page https://cfd.traderepublicatrading.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 opportunity through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out through the website https://tradingrepublica.com and its related page https://cfd.traderepublicatrading.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website https://tradingrepublica.com is available in Italian through an automatic translation system incorporated into the website, an activity of interaction of operators of the website with Italian investors has been reported, with complaints received from them, claiming that they were unable to get their money back to trade on the website https://tradingrepublica.com. In addition, on the website https://tradingrepublica.com no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website https://tradingrepublica.com from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the website https://tradingrepublica.com and on its page https://cfd.traderepublicatrading.com are not 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://tradingrepublica.com website and its https://cfd.traderepublicatrading.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 from the communication.

29 October 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona