RESOLUTION no. 21443 of 15/07/2020

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 www.eufxinvest.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 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (‘Consolidated Law on Finance’) and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the www.eufxinvest.com website, it emerged that:

i. the website is active and available in Italian;

ii. potential investors are offered the opportunity, through the website, subject to prior opening of an account via the registration process which is also available to Italian users, to trade financial instruments such as CFDs on currencies, shares, indices and commodities;

iii. in order to be able to trade, a cash investment is required to be paid into an account opened online;

iv. various types of account are offered on the website, known as "Micro", "Standard", "Silver", "Gold" and "VIP", depending on the minimum deposit required, as well as the opportunity to open an account operated by third parties through the "Europe Forex Invest PAMM system";

v. as for the links to the site in question, the Terms and Conditions indicate the company "EU FX Invest Limited" as the counterpart with its alleged office in New Zealand, while in other sections of the site reference is made to "Europe Forex Invest Limited" with alleged offices in the United Kingdom and Belgium; in the section of the reserved area dedicated to depositing money it states that "Europe Forex Invest is a brand owned and operated by TERRATECH LTD" based in the Marshall Islands;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21206 of 18 December 2019, whereby the order was given to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out by "Terratech Ltd" through the separate https://swissfingroup.com website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.eufxinvest.com website can be classed as the provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.eufxinvest.com website is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the site is in Italian and there have been reports of cold calling members of the public in Italy;

WHEREAS none of the companies mentioned on the www.eufxinvest.com website, including "Terratech Ltd", are authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as none of them 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 for authorised entities 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 for the public is reserved for investment firms and banks";

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract abuse" - Consob "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified 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 performed through the www.eufxinvest.com website, consisting in the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those whom it concerns and will be 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.

July 15, 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona