Resolution no. 22092

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://primea-trade24.com and the relevant page https://client.primea-trade24.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 7th June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the website https://primea-trade24.com, it emerged that:

i. the website https://primea-trade24.com is active and also available in Italian;

ii. the https://primea-trade24.com site offers potential investors the opportunity, after opening an account via the registration process, which is also available to Italian users, to trade financial instruments such as derivatives on currencies, commodities, indices and shares, using the trading platform provided therein;

iii. after registration, customers may log into the reserved area of the website at https://client.primea-trade24.com, where, inter alia, it is possible to deposit funds on the chosen trading account;

iv regarding the traceability of the https://primea-trade24.com site, the domain contains references to the companies "Prim Global Reach Ltd", "PrimeATrade Limited" and "FX Publications Inc." with no specification of the registered addresses.

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21978 of 29 July 2021, whereby the order was given to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://primaatrade.com website and the relevant https://client.primaatrade.com web page;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable on the domain of the aforementioned https://primaatrade.com website, the https://primea-trade24.com site replicates its content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://primea-trade24.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 transactions, executed through the https://primea-trade24.com website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, given that the website is available in Italian, and there have also been reports of cold calls being made to the Italian investing public;

WHEREAS the companies mentioned on the website https://primea-trade24.com are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as they do not 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 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 art. 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the provisions of art. 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - “Powers to counteract abuse” - pursuant to which 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 carried out through the website https://primea-trade24.com and the relevant page https://client.primea-trade24.com, which constitute the provision of 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.

25 November 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona