Resolution no. 23364

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 https://goldcapital24.pro and https://capitalmarket24.co websites

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:

1. the https://goldcapital24.pro website - which is active, can also be consulted in Italian and is registered anonymously - offers potential investors the possibility to trade, inter alia, on ETFs and CFDs relating to indices, shares and cryptocurrencies;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://goldcapital24.pro and open a trading account; specifically, the website https://goldcapital24.pro, mentions four types of accounts, known as “Standard”, “Silver”, “Gold” and “VIP”, depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;
3. once the user has registered on the website https://goldcapital24.pro, by means of a procedure that is also available to Italian users, the user is redirected to the linked website https://capitalmarket24.co which is registered anonymously, also available in Italian and has the same graphic interface, the same sections and same content as the website https://goldcapital24.pro; in particular, after entering the same references used to register on the website https://goldcapital24.pro, the user accesses the personal area of the website https://capitalmarket24.co, where the functions dedicated to the deposit and withdrawal of funds on the account, as well as the connection to the trading platform are available;
4. regarding the traceability of the aforementioned operations, the sites https://goldcapital24.pro and https://capitalmarket24.co contained generic references to “Goldcapital24” and “Capitalmarket24” respectively;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://goldcapital24.pro and https://capitalmarket24.co websites constitutes 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, via the said domains, to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the https://goldcapital24.pro and https://capitalmarket24.co websites, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the mentioned domains are also available in Italian and there have been reports of cold calls soliciting investments being made to retail investors in Italy. Furthermore, it was ascertained that there are no mechanisms aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to register with the website https://goldcapital24.pro from Italy/through Italian IP addresses and a complaint has been received from an Italian retail investor who claimed that she was unable to get her money back to trade on the website https://goldcapital24.pro;

WHEREAS the https://goldcapital24.pro and https://capitalmarket24.co websites 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 via the https://goldcapital24.pro and https://capitalmarket24.co websites, consisting in the 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.

18 December 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona