You must not use Paypal services for the following activities.

Illegal products and services

  • Illegal drugs, substances designed to imitate illegal drugs, and equipment designed to make or consume drugs
  • Referral services or fake IDs
  • Equipment for handling telecommunications, including jamming devices 
  • Any company or organization that (a) encourages, promotes or celebrates violence or physical harm to persons or property or (b) encourages, promotes or celebrates violence against any group based on race, religion, disability , gender, sexual orientation, nationality or any other immutable characteristic, or participates in it
  • Any other product or service that violates the law in the jurisdictions in which your business is located or targeted

Products and services that infringe intellectual property rights

  • Selling or distributing music, movies, software, or any other licensed material without proper authorization
  • Counterfeit products, illegally imported or exported products
  • Unauthorized sale of brand name or designer products or services
  • Any other product or service that directly infringes or facilitates the infringement of the trademark, patent, copyright, trade secret, property or privacy rights of any third party

Fraudulent, abusive or deceptive products and services

  • pyramid schemes
  • “Get rich quick” scams, including investment opportunities or other services that promise high rewards to deceive consumers; Scams that claim to offer large rewards for very little effort or upfront work, Sites that promise quick and easy money, Companies that make implausible claims, use misleading testimonials, push for secondary sales, or use false testimonials (with or without a written contract) that offer unrealistic incentives or rewards for the purchase of products or services, but do not answer any questions after purchase
  • Services that do not provide any added value, including the sale or resale of a service with no added benefit to the buyer and the resale of government offerings without authorization or value added
  • Traffic sales or Internet interactions
  • Marketing and telemarketing that require a negative response to avoid charges
  • Abusive counseling services on mortgages, loans, credit history repair and consulting
  • Abusive investment opportunities with or without advances
  • Remote tech support, sites that post or remove (for a fee) mugshots, commissioned writing businesses, chain letters, door-to-door sales
  • Any other business that Paypal deems fraudulent, abusive, or deceptive to consumers 

Adult content and services

  • Pornography and other adult content (such as literature, images, and other media) that includes nudity or explicit sexual acts
  • Adult services, including but not limited to prostitution, escorts, pay-per-view, sexual massage, and live adult chat
  • Video stores for adults
  • Dance clubs, cabarets and strip clubs

Certain legal services

  • Law firms that raise funds for purposes other than paying legal fees
  • Bankruptcy Lawyers
  • bail bonds

Firearms, Explosives and Hazardous Materials

  • Guns, gunpowder, ammunition, weapons, fireworks and other explosives 
  • Peptides, research chemicals and other toxic, flammable and radioactive materials 

bets

  • Games of chance including betting, Internet gambling, sweepstakes and contests, fantasy sports leagues with monetary or material prizes
  • Sports predictions or pools with a monetary or material prize
  • lotteries
  • Bid Fee Auctions

Dope

  • cannabis products
  • Cannabis distributors and related businesses
  • Products containing any amount of CBD or THC

Misuse of Paypal Products

  • Use of Paypal products in conjunction with false, misrepresented, inaccurate, or misleading information about your identity, your business entity, the nature of your business, or any other information requested by Paypal (you must notify us immediately of any changes to your personal information and commercial)
  • Use of Paypal products to facilitate transactions on behalf of another undisclosed merchant or for products/services undisclosed in the merchant's Paypal account application
  • Using Paypal primarily as a virtual terminal (for example, submitting card transactions by manually entering card information)
  • Processing in cases where a good or service is not sold in good faith, a donation is accepted, or a card is tested
  • Evasion of card network chargeback monitoring programs
  • Cross-border acquisition where the merchant's business address is outside the jurisdiction of the acquiring Paypal entity, unless permitted by card network rules
  • Sharing cardholder information with another merchant for payment of cross-selling products or services
  • Use of Stripe's intellectual property without its prior written consent, use of Stripe's name or logo, including use of Stripe's trademarks or service marks, that is not subject to Stripe's Mark Use Agreement, or in ways that are detrimental to Paypal or its brand, any action that implies false endorsement by Paypal or brand affiliation

Regulated sectors such as:

Financial products and services

  • Investment and brokerage services
  • loan services
  • “buy now pay later” services
  • Collective financing (crowdfunding)
  • Debt Collection Agencies
  • Insurance services, including medical insurance packages
  • Money transfers, currency exchange services and other money service businesses
  • Neobanks or challenger banks
  • Other financial institutions

Government Services

  • Government subsidies
  • Foreign embassies, consulates or other foreign governments

Telemedicine and pharmaceuticals

  • online pharmacies
  • Prescription-only products, including pharmaceuticals that do not require a physical card
  • Telemedicine and telehealth services

Tobacco

  • Tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and e-liquid for e-cigarettes

_Others

  • Credit card and identity theft protection services
  • Other goods or services with age restrictions

Businesses that involve a high level of financial risk such as:

Trips

  • Travel and club booking services
  • Airlines and cruises
  • timeshare services

Non-fiat currency and stored value cards

  • Virtual currencies, cryptocurrencies and related mining services
  • Prepaid phone cards, SIM cards and phone services
  • Sale of stored value cards or credits held, accepted and issued by anyone other than the seller
  • Sale of currency or items that are sold within video games, unless the merchant is the operator of the virtual world

Business models that may be especially prone to abuse by malicious actors, such as:

multilevel marketing

  • Businesses in which sellers earn their income from both selling items and recruiting new sellers
  • Network marketing or referral marketing programs
  • shipping agents

shipments

  • shipping agents
  • forwarding agents
  • direct shipments

Others

  • Charitable sweepstakes and raffles for the sole purpose of raising funds