Resolution no. 21589

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://marketsfx.co

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://marketsfx.co, it emerged that:

i. the website is available in Italian;

ii. it offers the possibility of performing trading transactions on CFDs and futures with currencies, shares, indices and commodities as their underlying assets, also in automated mode using the software called “AlgoTrading”;

iii. to be able to trade, you must register at the website and open an account to deposit the necessary funds. In this regard, the website https://marketsfx.co offers three account types, called “Mini”, “Classic” and “Premium”, differing by minimum deposit and associated services. However, in the contractual terms of the website itself, reference is made to five types of account as follows: “Micro Account”, “Standard Account”, “Silver Account”, “Gold Account” and “VIP Account”;

iv. as for the links to the website in question, the contractual terms and the document containing the “Privacy Policy”of the website itself mention the companies “Globalinvestfx LTD” and “D&D Venture Project LTD”. The privacy document mentioned above specifies that “Globalinvestfx LTD” would be based in Birmingham. Instead, at the bottom of the pages of the website, only the above-mentioned “D&D Venture Project LTD” is indicated. Finally, the website's contact page contains a London address.

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 21568 of October 29, 2020, whereby the above-mentioned companies “Globalinvestfx LTD” and “D&D Venture Project LTD” were ordered to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the website https://globalinvestfx.com and its page https://client.globalinvestfx.com;

HAVING REGARD TO, moreover, Consob Resolutions no. 21103 of October 9, 2019, no. 21172 of December 5, 2019, no. 21252 of February 5, 2020 and no. 21343 of April 29, 2020, whereby it was ordered to cease the infringements of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out, respectively, through the websites https://marketsfx.com, https://marketsfxcap.com, https://www.marketsfx.it and https://www.marketsfx.org, whose domains are almost entirely alike that of the website https://marketsfx.co which is the subject of this Resolution;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://marketsfx.co 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 above described operation, carried out through the website https://marketsfx.co is still in progress and is addressed to the public of Italian investors as the website in question is available in Italian language;

WHEREAS “Globalinvestfx LTD” and “D&D Venture Project LTD” mentioned on the website are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since they do not appear on the dedicated register held 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 Italian Investment 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 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 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 Consolidated Law on Finance performed through the website https://marketsfx.co, consisting in the offering and 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.

19 November 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona