Resolution no. 23225

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://fx-rocket.com and its related pages https://panel.fx-rocket.com https://trading.fx-rocket.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:

i. via the website https://fx-rocket.com - which is active, registered anonymously and can be consulted in Italian - users are offered the possibility of trading in contracts for differences (CFDs) with underlying currencies, shares and cryptocurrencies;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://fx-rocket.com through a process that is also available to Italian users on the page https://panel.fx-rocket.com, open an account and deposit the relevant funds;

iii. following registration, the user accesses the restricted area of the website where it is possible to make deposits to the trading account and select the "Open web trade" link that then redirects them to the trading platform, which can be found at the website https://trading.fx-rocket.com

iv. regarding traceability, the website https://fx-rocket.com indicates the companies FX-ROCKET Ltd and FX-ROCKET Private Bank, with an alleged registered office in London.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://fx-rocket.com and the respective pages https://panel.fx-rocket.com and https://trading.fx-rocket.com is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the above domain allows users to trade financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out via the websitehttps://fx-rocket.com and the related pages https://panel.fx-rocket.com and https://trading.fx-rocket.com, is still ongoing and available in Italian; it was also established that no mechanisms were available to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses; in addition, there have been reports of contacts with Italian retail investors (specifically, based on "cold calling" and the sending of emails in Italian), and reports have been received from Italian investors who have complained that they were unable to get their money back;

WHEREAS the website https://fx-rocket.com and its related pages https://panel.fx- rocket.com and https://trading.fx-rocket.com are not linked to any entity authorised to provide investment services and activities to the Italian public, given that the companies FX- ROCKET Ltd and FX-ROCKET Private Bank, do not appear in the register kept by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

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 the cessation of the infringement";

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. 58/1998 carried out via the https://fx-rocket.com website and its pages https://panel.fx-rocket.comand https://trading.fx-rocket.com, which constitute the 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.

25 July 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona