Judgment_paragraph 5 · Antonio Pasquale Mastromartino v Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob) (C-53/18)

5Points 1, 14 and 25 of Article 4(1) of that directive are worded as follows:1.For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:(1) “investment firm” means any legal person whose regular occupation or business is the provision of one or more investment services to third parties and/or the performance of one or more investment activities on a professional basis;Member States may include in the definition of investment firms undertakings which are not legal persons …:…However, where a natural person provides services involving the holding of third parties’ funds or transferable securities, he may be considered as an investment firm for the purposes of this Directive only if, without prejudice to the other requirements imposed in this Directive and in Directive 93/6/EEC, he complies with the following conditions:(a) the ownership rights of third parties in instruments and funds must be safeguarded …;(b) the firm must be subject to rules designed to monitor the firm’s solvency and that of its proprietors;(c) the firm’s annual accounts must be audited …;(d) where the firm has only one proprietor, he must make provision for the protection of investors in the event of the firm’s cessation of business following his death, his incapacity or any other such event;…(14) “regulated market” means a multilateral system operated and/or managed by a market operator, which brings together or facilitates the bringing together of multiple third-party buying and selling interests in financial instruments — in the system and in accordance with its non-discretionary rules — in a way that results in a contract, in respect of the financial instruments admitted to trading under its rules and/or systems, and which is authorised and functions regularly and in accordance with the provisions of Title III;…(25) “tied agent” means a natural or legal person who, under the full and unconditional responsibility of only one investment firm on whose behalf it acts, promotes investment and/or ancillary services to clients or prospective clients, receives and transmits instructions or orders from the client in respect of investment services or financial instruments, places financial instruments or provides advice to clients or prospective clients in respect of those financial instruments or services’.