Resolution no. 21696

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 www.brokermajor24.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 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 audits conducted on the website www.brokermajor24.com ascertained that:

i. the website is active and available in Italian;

ii. the website www.brokermajor24.com offers potential investors the opportunity, subject to registration with the site and opening of an account, to negotiate on the forex market and trade CFDs on shares, commodities and indices through the Sirix Webtrader platform;

iii. in order to be able to trade and carry out transactions, payment of a sum of money into an account opened on line is required; specifically, four types of account are offered on the website named"Mini", "Standard", "Gold", and "Platinum", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as to what and where the site can be traced to, the "Terms and Conditions" section indicates Broker Major Ltd with its registered address in the Marshall Islands;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21542 of 15 October 2020 and no. 21612 of 3 December 2020, whereby Broker Major Ltd, with registered office in the Marshall Islands, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate websites www.brokermajor.com and www.brokermajor-fx.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.brokermajor24.com constitutes the provision of investment services as referred to in art. 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account and placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activities, executed through the www.brokermajor24.com website, are still ongoing and are directed at Italian investors, given that the website is available in Italian, and there have also been reports of cold calling the Italian investing public;

WHEREAS the company Broker Major Ltd mentioned on this website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the dedicated register held by CONSOB pursuant to art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence to provide investment services and activities as per 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 article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract abusive practices" - 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 the cessation of the infringement";

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 through the website www.brokermajor24.com, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the concerned parties 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.

27 January 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona