Resolution no. 21986

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 websites https://fantex.co and https://www1.fantex.co and the respective page https://webtrader.fantex.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 web, it emerged that:

i. the websites https://fantex.co and https://www1.fantex.co, which are similar in structure and content, offer potential investors the opportunity to carry out forex transactions and trade CFDs on shares and commodities through the dedicated platform Fantex Webtrader;

ii. in order to place such transactions, users must register with the said websites, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. upon completion of the registration procedure, access is granted to the reserved area of the website https://webtrader.fantex.co, which contains a range of functionalities, including the use of the trading platform and withdrawal and deposit of liquidity on the trading account;

iv. as for traceability in the domain, the website https://fantex.co makes generic references to "Fantex" without any indication of the legal form or an address of the registered office, while the footer of the website https://www1.fantex.co specifies the company Felicity Group Ltd with registered office in the Commonwealth of Dominica;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the websites https://fantex.co and https://www1.fantex.co and the respective page https://webtrader.fantex.co is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place buy and/or sale orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the aforementioned websites https://fantex.co and https://www1.fantex.co, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling towards retail investors in Italy; moreover, the reserved area of both websites, accessible at the address https://webtrader.fantex.co, is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS the company named Felicity Group Ltd, with registered address in the Commonwealth of Dominica is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it does not appear on the dedicated register kept by Consob pursuant to Article 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 https://fantex.co and https://www1.fantex.co and the respective page https://webtrader.fantex.co, consisting in offering and providing 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 July 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona