Resolution no. 22337

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 via the website https://europeanstock.eu and the respective webpage https://client.europeanstock.eu

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 https://europeanstock.eu, which is active and registered anonymously, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade on the forex market and with CFDs on shares, indices and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://europeanstock.eu by opening an account and depositing the necessary funds; specifically, the website https://europeanstock.eu advertises four types of account, referred to as “Base”, “d’Argento”, “Oro” and “Platino”, depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after registering, users are granted access the reserved area of the site, which is available at the address https://client.europeanstock.eu, which provides several features, including specific functions for depositing and withdrawing funds on the trading account;

iv. as for the traceability of the transactions in question, the website https://europeanstock.eu makes generic references to “Europeanstock”;

v. the “Contact” section of the website https://europeanstock.eu contains a form for requesting information and the email address support@EuropeanStock.eu;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://europeanstock.eu website and relevant https://client.europeanstock.eu webpage constitutes 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 opportunity through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity is still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, given that the website https://europeanstock.eu is available in Italian, and moreover there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the activity carried out by the abovementioned websites cannot be attributed to any entity that is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public on a commercial basis. Specifically, the aforementioned internet domains are not attributable to any entity listen in the register maintained by Consob pursuant to art. 20 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("TUF");

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 https://europeanstock.eu website and its https://client.europeanstock.eu webpage, 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.

18 May 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona