Resolution no. 22892

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 www.customhousecl.com website and the respective web pages https://client.customhousecl.com and https://platform.tnxtechno.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. potential investors are offered the opportunity, through the www.customhousecl.com website – which is active, available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade contracts on currencies, shares, indices and commodities via a trading platform;
2. in order to place trades users must register with the website through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy and open a trading account, by filling in the form available at the URL https://client.customhousecl.com which can be accessed via the "open account" link on the aforementioned website;
3. checks on the web showed that users connecting from Italy can access an additional reserved area where they can use the "CustomhouseCL" trading platform and deposit funds into their trading account by registering at the URL https://platform.tnxtechno.com;
4. as to traceability, the website contains references to "CustomhouseCL" with its alleged registered office in Ireland;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.customhousecl.com website and the https://client.customhousecl.com and https://platform.tnxtechno.com pages 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 opportunity via 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.customhousecl.com website and the https://client.customhousecl.com and https://platform.tnxtechno.com pages, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that said domains are available in Italian, the absence of a mechanism to block registration by users attempting to register with the said website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses has been noted, attempts to contact Italian investors have been reported and complaints have also been received from Italian investors who have reported that they were unable to get back the sums deposited for trading transactions;

WHEREAS the www.customhousecl.com website and the https://client.customhousecl.com and https://platform.tnxtechno.com pages cannot 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 commercial 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 carried out via the www.customhousecl.com website and its https://client.customhousecl.com and https://platform.tnxtechno.com pages 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.

15 November 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona