Resolution no. 23411

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://fusionlots.io website and its page https://platform.fusionlots-techf.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. the https://fusionlots.io website, which is active and registered anonymously, offers potential investors the possibility to perform trading on the shares and CFDs relating to indices, shares, digital currencies and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://fusionlots.io - by means of a procedure available, also for Italian users, at the page https://platform.fusionlots-techf.com - and open a trading account; specifically, seven types of account are available on the website https://fusionlots.io, known as "Standard \ "Bronzo (Bronze) ", "Argento (Silver)", " Oro (Gold)", "Platino (Platinum)", "Pro " and " Vip " depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. within the reserved area of the website https://fusionlots.io, which is available in Italian at the aforementioned domain https://platform.fusionlots-techf.com, there are specific features, including the one dedicated to depositing and withdrawing money on the trading account;

iv. as regards traceability, the "Terms and Conditions" of the https://fusionlots.io website indicate that the contractual counterparty of the user operating through the aforementioned platform is "FusionLots";

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 23179 of 26 June 2024, whereby it was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://fusionlots.com website and its https://platform.fusionlots-techp.com webpage;

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

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://fusionlots.io website and the related https://platform.fusionlots-techf.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 aforementioned activity, carried out through the https://fusionlots.io website and the relevant page https://platform.fusionlots-techf.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy aimed at making the latter subscribe to the initiatives promoted on the website https://fusionlots.io.. Furthermore, it was ascertained that there are no mechanisms aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to register with the website https://fusionlots.io (the reserved area of which is directly available in Italian) from Italy through Italian IP addresses and a complaint has been received from an Italian retail investor who claimed that they were unable to get their money back to trade on the aforementioned platform;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the website https://fusionlots.io and on its page https://platform.fusionlots-techf.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 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://fusionlots.io website and its https://platform.fusionlots-techf.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.

29 January 2025

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona