Resolution no. 23252

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 https://fcapital24.org 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 https://fcapital24.org website, which is active, registered anonymously available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies and shares;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://fcapital24.org through a process that is also available for Italian users, open an account and deposit relevant funds;
3. in particular, four types of account are listed on the website https://fcapital24.org, referred to as "Standard", "Silver ", "Gold"’ and "Platinum", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;
4. as to traceability, generic references to "FCapital24" have been found on the website https://fcapital24.org, of which only one e-mail box is indicated (support@fcapital24.org);

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolutions no. 22997 of 7 February 2024, no. 23036 of 13 March 2024 and no. 23091 of 24 April 2024, whereby "FCapital24" was ordered to cease its infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out, respectively, through the separate website https://fcapital24.de, through the other domain https://fcapital24.eu, as well as via the additional website, https://fcapital24.co;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a web domain that is in part superimposable on those of the aforementioned websites https://fcapital24.de, https://fcapital24.eu and https://fcapital24.co, the website https://fcapital24.org replicates the content and graphic format of the said websites https://fcapital24.de, https://fcapital24.eu and https://fcapital24.co;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://fcapital24.org website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a trading account and place orders on it to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out through the website https://fcapital24.org, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website https://fcapital24.org is available in Italian and a copy of correspondence exchanged in Italian by e-mail between Italian retail investors and operators of the website https://fcapital24.org has been filed in the records. Furthermore, complaints have been received from Italian retail investors who complained about not being able to obtain a refund of the capital deposited to trade via the website https://fcapital24.org and in the same website https://fcapital24.org it was also ascertained that there are no mechanisms aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to register with the said website https://fcapital24.org from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the website https://fcapital24.org cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, given that "FCapital24" which is mentioned on the website https://fcapital24.org, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on 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 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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out via the https://fcapital24.org website, 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 from the communication.

18 September 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona