Resolution no. 22785

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 www.onspotcap.com website and the respective pages https://clientzone.onspotcap.com and https://webtrader.onspotcap.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. the www.onspotcap.com website - which is active and available in Italian - offers potential investors the possibility of trading contracts on currencies, indices, shares and digital currencies via a trading platform;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website www.onspotcap.com through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds. After registering with the website, the user gains access to the reserved area, which can be reached at the address https://clientzone.onspotcap.com, where it is possible to deposit liquidity in the trading account and access the trading platform which can be reached at the web address https://webtrader.onspotcap.com;
3. as to traceability, there are references to “OnspotBNK” in the pages of the www.onspotcap.com website and in the relevant contractual terms and conditions;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.onspotcap.com and the respective pages https://clientzone.onspotcap.com and https://webtrader.onspotcap.com constitutes 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 orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out via the www.onspotcap.com website and its https://clientzone.onspotcap.com and https://webtrader.onspotcap.com pages, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors given that said domains are available in Italian, the absence of mechanisms to block registration by users attempting to register with the said website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses has been noted and there have been reports of cold calling activity to contact Italian consumers;

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 infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the website www.onspotcap.com and the respective pages https://clientzone.onspotcap.com and https://webtrader.onspotcap.com constituted by the offer and provision of 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