Resolution no. 22416

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 https://green-capitalz.com website and relevant https://platform.greencapitalz-trade.com webpage

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://green-capitalz.com offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, commodities, indices and shares through a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website, via a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, access their personal area and the platform available at the address https://platform.greencapitalz-trade.com, open an account and deposit the relevant funds. Specifically, three types of account are advertised on the website, "Starter", "Gold" and "Platinum", which differ, among other things, according to the required deposit;

iii. as to the traceability of the website https://green-capitalz.com, the online contractual terms state the non-EU company "Promarketing Ltd" with declared offices in Dominica as the counterparty to the users;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22363 of 15 June 2022, whereby the said "Promarketing Ltd" was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate https://greencapitalz.com website and https://platform.greencapitalz.com page;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is superimposable on the domain of the aforementioned https://greencapitalz.com website, the www.green-capitalz.com website also replicates its content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://green-capitalz.com website and the relevant page https://platform.greencapitalz-trade.comconstitutes 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 https://green-capitalz.com website and its respective https://platform.greencapitalz-trade.com page, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domains are available in Italian, there have been reports of cold calling retail investors in Italy and, moreover, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the said website from Italy/Italian IP addresses. In addition, complaints have been received from Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS the website https://green-capitalz.com and the relevant page https://platform.greencapitalz-trade.com cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 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://green-capitalz.com and the relevant page https://platform.greencapitalz-trade.com, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those concerned 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.

20 July 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona