Resolution no. 22864

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 committed via the www.x-fortunes.com website

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.x-fortunes.com website offers potential investors the possibility to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, shares and commodities via a trading platform;
2. in order to place such trading transactions, users must register with the website and open an account on which to deposit funds; in this regard, six types of accounts are listed on the website (“Basico” (Basic), “Bronzo” (Bronze), “Argento” (Silver), “Oro” (Gold), “Platino” (Platinum) and “Elite”), which differ according to the required minimum deposit;
3. as far as traceability is concerned, the www.x-fortunes.com website contains several generic references to “Xfortunes”, while at the bottom of the pages it is specified that “XFortunes is a trading name of Mango Group LLC” with alleged registered office in St. Vincent and the Grenadines;

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

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.x-fortunes.com website is ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling from Italian retail investors, who complained about the impossibility of obtaining a return of the sums deposited;

WHEREAS the www.x-fortunes.com website may not be attributed to any entity 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 activities 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 provisions of Article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - “Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services” - pursuant to which 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 that the infringement cease”;

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.x-fortunes.com website, 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.

25 October 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona