Resolution no. 22690

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.trezocapital.co

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:

1. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website trezocapital.co – which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian – to trade CFDs on currencies, shares and crypto-currencies;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website trezocapital.co via a process that is also available for Italian users, open an account and deposit relevant funds;
3. in particular, the website trezocapital.co lists eight types of account, referred to as "Bronzo ", "Argento ", " Oro ", "Platino ", "Diamante ", "Premio ", " Vip " e "Islamico " ["Bronze", "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum", "Diamond", "Premium", "VIP" and "Islamic"], depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;
4. as to traceability, within the site trezocapital.co generic reference is made to "Trezocapital";

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22657 of 29 March 2023, whereby "Trezocapital" was ordered to cease its infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate www.trezocapital.com website;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a web domain that is partially similar to the domain of the aforementioned site www.trezocapital.com, the site www.trezocapital.co replicates the content and graphic format of the said site www.trezocapital.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.trezocapital.co website constitutes the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out through the website www.trezocapital.co, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the website  www.trezocapital.cois also available in Italian and that there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy regarding the initiatives promoted by the said website. Furthermore, complaints have been received from Italian retail investors who complained about not being able to obtain a refund of the capital deposited to trade through the website www.trezocapital.co and it was ascertained that there are no mechanisms aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to register with the website www.trezocapital.co from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the website www.trezocapital.co cannot be linked to any entity authorised to engage in the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public, since the company "Trezocapital", referred to on the above-mentioned website, does not appear on 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 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 unauthorised provision of investment services" - 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 performed through the www.trezocapital.co website, consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the all 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.

3 May 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona