Ethical Instructions for Merchants

Abuse of Kustom’s services

• Content, products, marketing or services encouraging or in other ways inappropriately related to hate, violence, racism or discrimination.
• Products, services or practices which are intended to cause danger, injury or suffering to humans or animals.
• Trade with protected animals or plants or products originating from protected animals or plants.
  

Adult content and services

• Adult services, including prostitution, escorts, pay-per-view, sexual massages, fetish services, mail-order brides, and adult live-chat features

• Adult video stores
• Gentleman’s clubs, topless bars, and strip clubs
• All online dating services, including matchmakers
• Pornography and other mature-audience content (including literature, imagery, and other media) depicting nudity or explicit sexual acts
• Any artificial intelligence–generated content that meets the above criteria
• Products or services (including images and marketing) related to paedophilia, non-consensual sexual behaviour, sexual exploitation of a minor, non-consensual mutilation of a person or body part
• Products related to bestiality, zoophilia, incest and prostitution
  

Drugs and illegally derived substances and products

• Illegal drugs, substances designed to mimic illegal drugs, including kava
• Equipment and items intended to be used for making or using drugs
• Cannabis products
• Cannabis dispensaries and related businesses
• CBD products with THC levels greater than the applicable local jurisdiction’s legal limit, including CBD edibles
• Hydroponic equipment and other cultivation or production equipment marketed for growing marijuana
• Courses and information on cultivating marijuana
  

Financial and legal services

• ATMs
• Cheque cashing
• Debt collection agencies
• Funded prop trading
• Money orders and traveller’s cheques
• Payable-through accounts
• Peer-to-peer money transmission
• Selling bearer shares
• Shell banks
• Bankruptcy lawyers
• Bail bonds
• Law firms collecting funds for purposes other than legal service fee payment

Gambling

• Games of chance including gambling, internet gambling, casino games, sweepstakes and contests, and fantasy sports leagues with a monetary or material prize
• Games of skill including video game and mobile game tournaments or competitions, darts, card games, and board games with a monetary or material prize
• Payments of an entry or player fee that promise the entrant or player will win a prize of value
• Sports forecasting or odds-making with a monetary or material prize
• Lotteries
• Bidding fee auctions

Illegal products or services

• Illegal business methods, practices, products or services
• Fake references or ID-providing services
• Telecommunications manipulation equipment, including jamming devices
• Businesses that engage in, encourage, promote, or celebrate unlawful violence or physical harm to persons or property
• Businesses that engage in, encourage, promote, or celebrate unlawful violence toward any group based on race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other immutable characteristic
• Any other products or services that are in violation of law in the jurisdictions where your business is located or to which your business is targeted
• Counterfeit products and illegally acquired goods, including copyright infringements, services designed to promote infringements of intellectual property rights, e.g. by bonus programs for uploading unauthorized digital content and unauthorized file sharing or streaming, unlicensed copies
• Goods and services, or marketing of such, violating any law
• Orders, services and practices that relate to any form of illegal activity, including without limitation, money laundering, terrorist financing, human trafficking, political corruption, VAT fraud, tax evasion and illegal wildlife trafficking
• Practices misleading or deceiving consumers or discarding or avoiding consumer protection laws
• Practices or methods constituting acts of modern slavery in any part of a business or its supply chains. Such practices or methods include any deprivation of a person’s liberty in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain
• Products and services provided without license as required by law
• Sanctioned goods or services, or goods or services originating from sanctioned countries or individuals, including travel to and accommodation in countries subject to sanctions
• Sale of age restricted services or products, including alcohol, E-cigarettes, tobacco and tobacco substitutes to minors

Debt relief companies

• Debt settlement, debt negotiation, and debt consolidation

Government services

• Offering products and services by or on behalf of embassies and consulates
• Offering government services without authorisation or value-add
• Offering government services with misleading claims
• Disbursement of government economic support, such as grants

Identity services

• Identity theft protection, services including monitoring and recovery

Products and services that infringe on intellectual property rights

• Sales or distribution of music, movies, software, or any other licensed materials without appropriate authorisation
• Counterfeit goods
• Illegally imported or exported products
• Unauthorised sale of brand-name or designer products or services
• Any other products or services that directly infringe or facilitate infringement upon the trademark, patent, copyright, trade secrets, proprietary, or privacy rights of any third party

Lending and credit

• Loan repayments with credit cards
• Credit monitoring, credit repair, and counselling services

Nutraceuticals and pseudo-pharmaceuticals

• Pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals that are not safe or make harmful claims

Non-fiat currency

• Cryptocurrency mining and staking
• Initial coin offerings (ICOs)
• Secondary NFT sales

Travel

• Commercial airlines and cruises
• Charter and private airlines
• Timeshare services

Unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (acts or practices that contravene rules, laws, regulations, or guidance prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or other local consumer regulatory bodies)

• Pyramid schemes
• Multi-level marketing services offering commission or recruitment-based sales
• “Get rich quick” schemes, including investment opportunities or other services that promise high rewards to mislead consumers; schemes that claim to offer high rewards for very little effort or up-front work; and sites that promise fast and easy money
• Businesses that make outrageous claims, use deceptive testimonials, use high-pressure upselling, or use fake testimonials (with or without a written contract)
• Businesses offering unrealistic incentives or rewards as an inducement to purchase products or services
• No-value-added services, including the sale or resale of a service without added benefit to the buyer and resale of government offerings without authorisation or added value
• Sales of online traffic or engagement
• Negative option marketing, negative option membership clubs, and reduced price trials with unclear or hidden pricing
• Telemarketing
• Predatory mortgage consulting
• Predatory investment opportunities with no or low money down
• Suspicious remote technical support
• Door-to-door sales
• Document falsification services Any other businesses that Stripe considers unfair, deceptive, or predatory towards consumers

Weapons, firearms, explosives, and

dangerous materials

• Guns, gunpowders, ammunitions, fireworks, and other explosives
• Weapon components such as firing pins, magazines, clips, and firearm conversion kits and any 3D-printed weapons
• Improperly marked replicas of modern firearms, including toys
• Pepper spray and stun guns
• Swords and katanas, unless they are meant as replicas or for the practice of martial arts
• Machetes
• Disguised knives and knives with opening mechanisms designed for quick deployment of a blade
• Pesticides requiring application by a certified professional
• Research chemicals
• Toxic, flammable, combustible, or radioactive materials
• Prohibited and restricted goods for postage, per the United States Postal Service

Financial and legal services

• Insurance
• Investment and brokerage services, including real estate–based investments
• Lending services, including real estate loans
• Bank account funding
• Buy now, pay later services
• Money transmitters, remittances, currency exchange services, and other money service businesses
• Escrow services
• Neobanks or challenger banks
• Other financial services
  

Gambling and Gaming

• In-game purchases.
  

Travel, tours and events

• Event organizers and ticketing platforms.
• Hotels and other accommodations.
• Rentals & housing.
• Tour agencies & tour operators.
• Travel reservation services and clubs
• In-flight purchases
  

Weapons, firearms, explosives, and dangerous materials

• Replica weapons, soft air gun and related accessories.

Age restricted items and services

• Alcohol
• E-cigarettes
• Fireworks
• Tobacco and Tobacco substitutes

High risk businesses, products and services

• Marketplaces
• Medical treatments and services
• Political parties
• Prepaid phone services
• Religious organizations
• Testing labs
• Dropshipping

Pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and telemedicine

• Online pharmacies, including SaaS platforms
• Card-not-present prescription-only products and pharmaceuticals
• Prescription-only and regulated medical devices
• Prescription delivery services
• Telemedicine and telehealth services

Content creation platforms

• Platforms that host or distribute third-party content and enable content creators to:

• Receive content-related tips and other payments in exchange for their content

• Sell exclusive content or digital goods

Cyberlockers

• Cyberlocker and file-sharing services

Cannabidiol (CBD)

• CBD products containing only negligible amounts of THC, per local limits

Cryptocurrency

• Cryptocurrency (for example, Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Cardano, etc.) exchanges and wallets. For crypto and NFT support and availability by region, please see crypto supportability

Non-fiat currency and stored value

• First-party non-fungible tokens (NFTs) minting and sales, including marketplaces and SaaS platforms.
• Sale of stored value or credits maintained, accepted, and issued by anyone other than the seller

• Sale of in-game currency or game items, unless the business is the operator of the virtual world
• Pre-loaded payment cards, gift cards, virtual credits, or other products and services in which a monetary value is stored within the item (digital or physical)

Third-party agents

• Payment facilitation and aggregation (including receiving settlement proceeds for goods or services that you did not provide, on behalf of one or multiple third-party sellers)