Resolution no. 22731

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance committed via the website www.gadvm.com and its page https://cabinet.gadvm.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, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING REGARD to Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance"), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

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

1. via the website gadvm.com - website which is active and can be consulted in Italian - potential investors are offered the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, shares, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies via a dedicated trading platform;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website gadvm.com through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds.
3. following registration, it is possible to access the reserved area of the website, also available in Italian at the further address https://cabinet.gadvm.com, within which there is, among other things, a special function dedicated to the deposit of cash on a trading account;
4. as to the traceability of the website gadvm.com, the page entitled "Terms and Conditions" contains references to Gadvm Limited, allegedly based in Luxembourg;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website www.gadvm.com and its page https://cabinet.gadvm.com is to be considered as 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 the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.gadvm.com and its page https://cabinet.gadvm.com is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domains are available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses; In addition, contact with Italian customers using remote communication techniques (cold calling) was reported and complaints were received from Italian savers who claimed that they were unable to get their money back once invested to trade through the website www.gadvm.com;

WHEREAS the website www.gadvm.com and its page https://cabinet.gadvm.com may not be linked to any entity authorised to provide investment services and activities to the Italian public, given that Gadvm Limited, i.e. the company which is mentioned on the www.gadvm.com 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";

CONSIDERING therefore that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in breach of article 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 breach";

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 conducted through the website www.gadvm.com and the respective page https://cabinet.gadvm.com, 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.

8 June 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona