Resolution no. 21518

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://richemontson.cc

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 website https://richemontson.cc, it emerged that:

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website https://richemontson.cc, which is also available in Italian, to trade CFDs relating to currencies;

ii. in order to carry out the above-mentioned trading operations, the user is required to register on the sitehttps://richemontson.cc, open a trading account on the same site and use money there;

iii. in particular, the website https://richemontson.cc offers four types of account, known as “Basic", “Silver", “Gold" and “VIP”, depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as for traceability, in the website https://richemontson.cc there are generic references to the brand “richemontson”, without any indication of its stated address;

WHEREAS the activity carried out also through the site https://richemontson.cc can be classed as the provision of investment services as referred to in art. 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated law on Finance, as clients are offered the possibility to open a trading account on which it is possible to issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above-described operations, carried out through the website https://richemontson.cc, are still ongoing and addressed to the public of Italian investors as the aforementioned domain is also available in Italian and, for the same, contact activities have been reported through unsolicited telephone solicitation techniques (so-called "cold calling") to the Italian public;

WHEREAS “richemontson”, mentioned on this website https://richemontson.cc, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the register maintained 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 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 Stock brokerage firms, EU investment firms, Italian banks, EU banks and non-EU firms';

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

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of art. 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 through 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 the Italian Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the website https://richemontson.cc, consisting in offering 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.

30 September 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona