Resolution no. 22784

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 (“Consolidated Law on Finance”) to cease the breach of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the https://trade4winner.com website and the https://crm.sheersmarkets.com page

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. the https://trade4winner.com website – which is active, registered anonymously and searchable in Italian – offers potential investors the possibility of trading CFDs on currencies, shares, indices and commodities;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://trade4winner.com website, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open an account in which to deposit sums of money; specifically, six types of account are advertised on the website named “PRE/EUR”, “PRE/USD”, “GPB/Sterlina”, “CHF/Franco svizzero”, “VIP/EUR” and “VIP/USD”;
3. after registering with the website, access is gained to the reserved area accessible at https://crm.sheersmarkets.com, and available in Italian;
4. to the traceability of the https://trade4winner.com website, there are generic references on its pages to “Trade4winner”;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://trade4winner.com and the page https://crm.sheersmarkets.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 above described activity, carried out via the https://trade4winner.com website and its https://crm.sheersmarkets.com page, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the aforesaid domains are available in Italian and there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy regarding the initiatives promoted via the aforesaid website. Furthermore, it was ascertained that there are no mechanisms aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to register with the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors who complained about not being able to obtain a refund of the sums of money deposited;

WHEREAS the abovementioned domains cannot be attributed to any party 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 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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 conducted via the website https://trade4winner.com and the page https://crm.sheersmarkets.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.

19 July 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona