Resolution no. 23550 of 7 May 2025

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 www.afexmarkets-it.com and its related pages https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com https://webtrader.alpha247-it.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.afexmarkets-it.com website – which is active, available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade CFDs on currencies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, shares and indices using a dedicated trading platform;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.afexmarkets-it.com website through a procedure that is also available to Italian users, then open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds. After registering, users gain access to the restricted area at the URL https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com where they can, among other things, deposit funds into their trading account and access the trading platform available at the URL https://webtrader.alpha247-it.com;
3. as to the traceability of the operations carried out on the website www.afexmarkets-it.com, the website contains references to “Afex Markets” and the email address backoffice@afexmarkets.com;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22845 of 9 October 2023, whereby it was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.afexmarket.com website and its https://client.afexmarket.com webpage;

WHEREAS the website www.afexmarkets-it.com has a domain that is partially superimposable to the domain of the website, www.afexmarket.com as well as similar content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.afexmarkets-it.com website and its pages https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com and https://webtrader.alpha247-it.com 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 possibility via the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, which is carried out via the www.afexmarkets-it.com website and its pages https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com and https://webtrader.alpha247-it.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said Internet domains are available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy using Italian IP addresses. Moreover, regarding the www.afexmarkets-it.com website, reports have been received of interaction with Italian customers, and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors, who reported that they were unable to recover the sums paid for trading activities;

WHEREAS the www.afexmarkets-it.com website and its pages https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com and https://webtrader.alpha247-it.com 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 through the www.afexmarkets-it.com website and its https://clientarea.alpha247-it.com and https://webtrader.alpha247-it.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.

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona