Resolution no. 23046

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 website https://famefx24.com and its related pages https://crm.investmentcfd.com https://trading.wrt33.com

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA

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:

i. the https://famefx24.com website, which is active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade on the forex market and on CFDs relating to indices, shares, commodities and metals;

ii. in order to carry out such trading transactions, users must register with the https://famefx24.com website and open a trading account; specifically, two types of account are available, known as ""Microconto (Micro account)" and " Conto Standard (Standard account)" , depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after registering, you can access the reserved area of the website https://famefx24.com available on the page https://crm.investmentcfd.com and within which there is a hyperlink (through the "Open Web Trade" electronic button) to the page dedicated to accessing the online trading platform available on the additional domain https://trading.wrt33.com;

iv. the https://famefx24.com website contains generic references to "FameFX24" as well as the email address "info@famefx24.com".

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://famefx24.com website and its related pages https://crm.investmentcfd.com and https://trading.wrt33.com constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since 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 website https://famefx24.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that said website is available in Italian, there have been reports of Italian investors being contacted and the absence of a mechanism to block registration by users attempting to register with the website https://famefx24.com from Italy/through Italian IP addresses has been noted; in addition 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 https://famefx24.com website and its pages https://crm.investmentcfd.com and https://trading.wrt33.com could 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 carried out through the website https://famefx24.com and its pages https://crm.investmentcfd.com and https://trading.wrt33.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.

21 March 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona