Resolution no. 22148

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://acetopfin.com and the relevant page https://accounts.acetopfin.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, from the checks carried out, it emerged that:

i. the website https://acetopfin.com, which is active and also available in Italian, offers users the opportunity of CFD trading with currencies, metals and commodities as the underlying assets;

ii. for the above trading transactions, users are required to register with the website https://acetopfin.com – through a procedure that is available, even for Italian users, on the page https://accounts.acetopfin.com – and to open an account and deposit funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account https://acetopfin.com are advertised on the website, under the names of "Micro Account", "Standard Live Account", "Premium Account" and "VIP Account", differentiated by the benefits offered;

iv. as regards the owner of the websitehttps://acetopfin.com, it is stated on the page "Terms and Conditions" that "this website is owned and operated by FX Publications, INC"; moreover, at the bottom of the website pages there are references to other companies called "acetopfinancial Ltd" and "Vita Impex Ltd" (an address in London is indicated on the website only for the latter);

WHEREAS the activities carried out through the website https://acetopfin.com and the page https://accounts.acetopfin.com may be considered as the provision of investment services, within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that customers are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account and placing purchase and/or sales orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out through the website https://acetopfin.com and the web pagehttps://accounts.acetopfin.com, is continuing and targets Italian investors, given that the above domains are also available in Italian; whereas moreover, in relation to the same domains, there have been reports of cold call to Italian investors;

WHEREAS the companies "FX Publications, INC", "acetopfinancial Ltd" and "Vita Impex Ltd" mentioned on the website are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, given that they are not registered with 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 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 Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the website https://acetopfin.com and the relevant page https://accounts.acetopfin.com, constituting the offer and 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.

22 December 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona