Resolution no. 22306

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.4x-trade.net and the page https://client.tradingcabinet.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 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the website www.4x-trade.net offers potential investors the opportunity to carry out forex transactions and trade CFDs on currencies, shares and commodities through the platform Metatrader 4;

ii. in order to place such transactions, users must register with the website www.4x-trade.net, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. on completion of the registration procedure, users are granted access to the reserved area of the website https://client.tradingcabinet.com, which may also be viewed in Italian;

iv. as far as traceability of the website www.4x-trade.net is concerned, the footer of the website specifies the company Evergo Ltd with registered office in the Marshall Islands;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21756 of 6 November 2020 and no. 21981 of 29 July 2021, whereby Evergo Ltd, with stated 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 website www.tradesrun.com and the page https://client.trading-dashboard.co and through the website www.4x-trade.com and the page https://client.tradefiled.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.4x-trade.net and the respective page https://client.tradingcabinet.comis 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 website www.4x-trade.net and the page https://client.tradingcabinet.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling towards retail investors in Italy and the reserved area available at the address https://client.tradingcabinet.com is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS the company Evergo Ltd, with registered address in the Marshall Islands, to which the website www.4x-trade.net is deemed to belong, 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 fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved to authorised 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 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.4x-trade.net and the page https://client.tradingcabinet.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 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.

21 April 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona