Resolution no. 23566 of 21/5/2025

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 through the websites www.vtmarkets.com and www.vtmarkets.net and their pages https://myaccount.vtmarkets.net and https://social.vtacademy.net

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. the website www.vtmarkets.com is active and, by selecting the Italian language among those available, the user is redirected to the website www.vtmarkets.net;

ii. the website www.vtmarkets.net - active, available in Italian and anonymously registered - offers, subject to prior opening of an account, the opportunity to trade forex, indices, ETFs, CFDs and commodities;

iii. in order to carry out the aforementioned operations, registration on the website and access to the reserved area available at the internet address https://myaccount.vtmarkets.net are required, from which, in turn, it is possible to access the login page of the trading platform, which can be reached at the internet address https://social.vtacademy.net;

iv. as for the traceability of the website www.vtmarkets.net (which is automatically redirected from the websitewww.vtmarkets.com), it appears attributable to the company VT Markets Limited based in Mauritius.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.vtmarkets.net - which is automatically redirected from the website www.vtmarkets.com - with the related pages https://myaccont.vtmarkets.net and https://social.vtacademy.net 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 aforementioned activity, which is carried out via the www.vtmarkets.net website - which is automatically redirected from the website vtmarkets.com - with the related pages https://myaccont.vtmarkets.net and https://social.vtacademy.net is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website is available in Italian and, relating to the www.vtmarkets.net website, there have been reports of Italian customers being contacted and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the aforesaid website from Italy using Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the website www.vtmarkets.net - which is automatically redirected from the website www.vtmarkets.com - with the related pages https://myaccont.vtmarkets.net and https://social.vtacademy.net is not 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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 carried out via the www.vtmarkets.com and www.vtmarkets.net websites and their pages https://myaccont.vtmarkets.net and https://social.vtacademy.net, 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 publication.

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona