Resolution no. 23308

Order, pursuant to Article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease the breach of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the https://www.goldbysell.co website and its related pages https://clientzone.goldbysell.co and https://goldbysell.technoglobal.org

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. the https://www.goldbysell.co website, which is active and registered anonymously, offers potential investors the possibility to perform trading on the forex market and on CFDs relating to indices, shares, cryptocurrencies and commodities;

in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://www.goldbysell.co, and open a trading account from the pagehttps://clientzone.goldbysell.co; specifically, four types of accounts are available, known as "Classic", "Standard", "Pro" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after registering, it was possible to access the reserved area of the website https://www.goldbysell.co where there are specific features for depositing cash in the trading account, and a link for accessing the specific online trading platform available at another address, namely https://goldbysell.technoglobal.org.

iv. the https://www.goldbysell.co website contains generic references to "Goldbysell" and an indication of the email address "info@goldbysell.co".

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://www.goldbysell.co website and its related pages https://clientzone.goldbysell.co and https://goldbysell.technoglobal.org constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since 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 aimed at Italian investors, since cold calling of Italian customers has been reported; no mechanisms were found to block registration on the website https://www.goldbysell.co by users attempting to register from Italy through Italian IP addresses and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors who reported that they were unable to recover the invested amounts;

WHEREAS the https://www.goldbysell.co website and the related pages https://clientzone.goldbysell.co and https://goldbysell.technoglobal.org cannot 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 infringement of Article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the https://www.goldbysell.co website and its https://clientzone.goldbysell.co and https://goldbysell.technoglobal.org pages 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.

29 October 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona