Resolution no. 23553 of 15 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 infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the https://primexmarkets.com website and its https://client.primexmarkets.com page

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 via the https://primexmarkets.com website – which is active and available in Italian through an automatic translation system incorporated into the website – to trade CFDs on cryptocurrencies, indices, commodities and shares;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://primexmarkets.com website – through a procedure also available to users connected to the web from Italy on the page https://client.primexmarkets.com, linked to the https://primexmarkets.comwebsite – and deposit relevant funds;
3. as to traceability, references to “PrimeXMarkets Ltd” and two email addresses (contact@primexmarkets.com and support@primexmarkets.com) were found on the https://primexmarkets.com website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://primexmarkets.com and the respective page https://client.primexmarkets.com is deemed to constitute 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 through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out through the https://primexmarkets.com website and its https://client.primexmarkets.compage, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the https://primexmarkets.com website is available in Italian through an automatic translation system incorporated into the https://primexmarkets.com website; interaction of operators of the https://primexmarkets.com website with Italian customers has been reported; on the https://primexmarkets.com website, no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website connected to the web from Italy/through Italian IP addresses; a report has been received from an Italian investor claiming that they have been unable to get their money back once invested to trade on the https://primexmarkets.com website;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the https://primexmarkets.com website and on its https://client.primexmarkets.com page cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, given that “PrimeXMarkets Ltd” which is mentioned on the https://primexmarkets.com website, 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 conducted via the https://primexmarkets.com website and its https://client.primexmarkets.com page, 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