Prohibited and Restricted Businesses
Last updated: June 2024
This update clarifies our support for content creation platforms. No other sections of this document have been modified since the last update.

Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe Partnership
Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) is partnered with Stripe for payment processing. The prohibited and restricted businesses list provided here aligns with Stripe’s guidelines.

How to Use This Page

This page provides information about the types of businesses, products, and industries that can’t use Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe’s services. To use these services, you must remain compliant with these rules and restrictions. For more information about why we can’t work with every business, please see this article about our business limitations.

• High-Risk Jurisdictions and Persons

• Prohibited Businesses
  Industries that can’t use Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe, and products that Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe don’t support.

• Restricted Businesses
  Industries and products that can’t use Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe’s services without prior written approval.

• Jurisdiction-Specific Prohibited Businesses
  Countries that have specific prohibitions.

• Prohibited Uses of Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe Products
  Certain activities that Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe may never be used for, regardless of the industry.

• Prohibitions for Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe Issuing Products
  Prohibitions related to the use of issuing products.

If you have any questions about prohibited and restricted businesses, you can contact us.

High-Risk Jurisdictions and Persons

Use of Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe's services for any dealings, engagement, or sale of goods or services, either directly or indirectly, with the following are prohibited:

• High-Risk Jurisdictions
  Persons located in, resident in, or citizens of, or products or services originating from jurisdictions that Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe have determined to be prohibited for various reasons, including legal, contractual, and commercial reasons, such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.

• High-Risk Persons
  Persons Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe have determined for various reasons, including legal, contractual, and commercial reasons, to be prohibited, such as those individuals or entities named to a restricted person or party list of, or otherwise restricted by, the US, United Kingdom, European Union, or United Nations, including the sanctions maintained by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control or the Denied Persons List or Entity List maintained by the US Department of Commerce.

Additionally, it’s prohibited to use Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe's products and services to directly or indirectly:

• Prohibited Services
  Export, re-export, sell, or supply accounting, trust and corporate formation, management consulting services, architecture services, or engineering services to any person located in Russia.

• Prohibited Goods
  Deal in any goods prohibited by law for export to or import from Russia (for example, luxury goods).

Prohibited Businesses

You must not use Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe’s services for any illegal activities or for the businesses or product types listed below. The types of businesses listed here are representative of prohibited categories, but this is not an exhaustive list.

• Any Illegal Products and Services
  Illegal drugs, substances designed to mimic illegal drugs (including kava), equipment and items intended to be used for making or using drugs, 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 targeted to.

• 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, gentlemen'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, cyberlockers, regardless of whether they host adult content.

• Debt Relief Companies
  Debt settlement, debt negotiation, and debt consolidation.

• 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 promises 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.

• Government Services
  Offering products and services by or on behalf of embassies and consulates, offering government services without authorization or added value, 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 authorization, counterfeit goods, cyberlockers, regardless of whether they host infringing content, illegally imported or exported products, unauthorized 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.

• The Following Legal Services
  Bankruptcy lawyers, bail bonds, law firms collecting funds for purposes other than legal service fee payment.

• Lending and Credit
  Loan repayments with credit cards, credit monitoring, credit repair, and counseling services.

• Marijuana
  Cannabis products, cannabis dispensaries and related businesses, CBD products with THC levels that are 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.

• Nutraceuticals and Pseudo-Pharmaceuticals
  Pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals focused on significant weight loss or sexual performance, pseudo-pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals making unsupportable or harmful claims.

• Non-Fiat Currency
  Cryptocurrency mining and staking, initial coin offerings (ICOs), secondary NFT sales.

• Travel
  Commercial airlines and cruises, timeshare services.

• Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices
  Acts or practices that contravene rules, laws, regulation, 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 authorization 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 monetary deposit, suspicious remote technical support, door-to-door sales, document falsification services, any other businesses that Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe consider unfair, deceptive, or predatory towards consumers.

• Weapons, Firearms, Explosives, and Dangerous Materials
  Guns, gunpowder, ammunition, 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, unmailable goods, per the United States Postal Service.

Restricted Businesses

You must not use Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe’s services for the following activities unless you have received prior written approval from Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe. If you think your business falls into one of the restricted categories, please contact us. Due to card network rules, requirements of financial partners, and our own compliance and legal obligations, if your business falls into one of the categories below, Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe might not be able to support your business.

• Businesses Requiring Licenses or Certification
  Airlines, including charters and private planes, charter or private buses, pharmacies, banks, and insurance companies, money transmitters, securities brokers, legal professionals (including lawyers and notaries) involved in the exchange of funds or the handling of client money, medical services, including doctors, dentists, and chiropractors, gambling operations, including lotteries and sweepstakes, pawnshops, vehicle rentals and sales, telecommunication services (for example, internet service providers and VOIP providers), virtual currency (for example, Bitcoin).

• Counterfeit, Unauthorized, or Pseudo-Pharmaceutical Products
  Sale of counterfeit goods, unauthorized sale of brand name or designer products, distribution of unauthorized copies of books, music, films, and other licensed materials.

• Crowdfunding
  Raising funds for a business, product, or idea through the solicitation of the general public, raising funds for an invention or innovation.

• Gambling, Gaming, and Betting
  Betting or wagering of money on the outcome of a race, game, or contest, gambling involving the outcome of an event, fantasy sports leagues with a monetary or material prize, online gaming with a monetary or material prize, including poker, video games, and lotteries.

• High-Risk Investment Services
  Trading platforms, investment advice, commodities trading, and online investment platforms.

• Peer-to-Peer Sales
  Direct sales between consumers, classified ads, listings, and sales of personal goods.

• Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP)
  Practices that may be harmful or exploitative towards consumers, businesses that rely on misleading consumers about the value or efficacy of a product or service, businesses that use deceptive testimonials, businesses that use fake testimonials (with or without a written contract), businesses that offer “get rich quick” schemes, businesses that make unrealistic or misleading claims about their services, businesses that use high-pressure upselling tactics, businesses that rely on predatory sales practices.

Approval is specific to each service offer and may be modified or revoked by Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe at any time per the terms of the Zavo Ltd (Zavopay) & Stripe Services Agreement.

Have more questions? Please contact us.

The types of businesses listed above are representative of our Restricted Businesses but not exhaustive.