Resolution no. 22417

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://theactivetraders.com website and relevant https://client.theactivetraders.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 https://theactivetraders.com website, which is active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs with underlying currencies, indices, commodities and shares via a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://theactivetraders.com website, via a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, open a trading account and deposit relevant funds; specifically, 4 types of account are advertised on the website ("Silver", "Gold", "Diamond" and "Vip") which differ, among other things, according to the required deposit. After registering, users can access the reserved area of the website available at https://client.theactivetraders.com, where, among other things, they can make deposits into their trading account;

iii. regarding the traceability of the https://theactivetraders.com website, there are references on the website to "The Active Traders Ltd", with presumed headquarters in the United Kingdom;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://theactivetraders.com website and relevant https://client.theactivetraders.com pageconstitutes 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 domain to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the https://theactivetraders.com website and its respective https://client.theactivetraders.com page, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domain is 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 company mentioned on the https://theactivetraders.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed on the register maintained 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 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://theactivetraders.com and the relevant page https://client.theactivetraders.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