Resolution no. 23587 of 4 June 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 committed via the https://3-afund.com 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. potential investors are offered the opportunity, through the https://3-afund.com website – which is active, also available in Italian and anonymously registered – to trade shares, Forex, CFDs on equity indices, commodities as well as ETF on cryptocurrencies, via a trading platform;
2. in order to place trading transactions, users must register with the website, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account; specifically, four different types of accounts are advertised on the website “Standard”, “Argento (Silver)”, “Oro (Gold)” and “Vip” which differ, moreover, also according to the requested minimum deposit;
3. after registering, users can access the reserved area, where it is possible to carry out, among other things, deposits and withdrawals;
4. as to the traceability, the website https://3-afund.com makes general reference to “3AFund” and the e-mail address support@3-afund.com is indicated;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://3-afund.com constitutes the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above described activity, carried out via the https://3-afund.com website, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the https://3-afund.com website is also available in Italian and in relation to the same website, reports have also been received of cold calling Italian retail investors in Italy. Furthermore, it was ascertained that there are no mechanisms aimed at preventing or limiting registration by users who attempt to register with the website https://3-afund.com from Italy through Italian IP addresses and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors who claimed that they were unable to get their money back to trade on the website https://3-afund.com;

WHEREAS the website https://3-afund.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, paragraph 1, 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://3-afund.com 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 of the date of service.

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona