Restricted Businesses
Effective 5 September 2026 · Reconciled against Stripe’s published list of 2026-05-13
This is the acceptable-use policy for Sailo. It says which businesses we accept, which we accept with something attached, and which we decline. It forms part of the Terms of Service — clauses 6, 7 and 8 — and is published separately so that it can be linked, quoted and checked on its own.
Section 1. What this covers, and on which channels
This policy holds on every channel. Most orders on Sailo arrive by chat, bank transfer or cash and never touch a payment system — that does not make anything below acceptable here.
Card payments on Sailo are created on the seller’s own Stripe connected account. Stripe’s prohibited and restricted businesses list therefore binds every seller who switches card payments on, and the card networks’ rules bind Stripe in turn. This policy is shaped like Stripe’s deliberately. Where the two differ, the stricter one applies.
A platform whose own policy is looser than its processor’s is not being more permissive. It is telling sellers yes and letting Stripe tell them no later, after they have built a catalogue.
Accepting a shop is not us saying your business is lawful, licensed or insured where you are. That stays yours to establish under clause 4 of the Terms, and we do not check it for you.
Section 2. Businesses we accept
Almost every small business fits here. If you recognise your trade in this list, there is nothing further you need from us before you start.
- Things you make
- jewellery, ceramics, candles, clothing, art and prints, furniture, leather goods, plants, soap and skincare, anything that leaves your hands finished
- Things you buy and resell
- boutiques, thrift and vintage, sneakers, books, parts and spares, wholesale to trade buyers, second-hand goods you own outright
- Food and drink
- bakeries, home kitchens, coffee roasters, spice and sauce makers, catering, meal boxes, cakes to order, market stalls
- Digital files
- presets and LUTs, templates, e-books, fonts, sample packs, stock photography, notion boards, printables, recorded courses
- Services and appointments
- hairdressing, barbering, nails, tattooing, photography, repairs, cleaning, tutoring, translation, design, trades, consulting
- Classes, workshops and events
- a seat at a pottery class, a supper club, a workshop, a market pitch, a retreat place, a ticketed talk
- Made to order and commissions
- custom furniture, wedding cakes, portraits, tailoring, personalised gifts, print on demand, anything you start after the order arrives
- Rentals and hire
- equipment hire, party and event kit, tools, costumes, bikes, studio time — where you hold the item and the buyer collects or returns it
The list is not exhaustive and is not meant to be. Something similar to these, sold honestly, is accepted whether or not it has a line of its own.
Section 3. Accepted, with conditions
These are real businesses and they are welcome here, but each one carries a licence, an age restriction, or a gap between when the buyer pays and when they receive — and the gap is where chargebacks come from. The condition attached to each is part of the Terms: trading outside it is a breach, not a technicality.
- Food prepared for sale
- You are registered with whichever authority licenses food where you cook, you meet its hygiene and allergen-labelling rules, and a home kitchen is registered as one.
- Alcohol
- You hold the licence your country requires to sell it, you verify age at delivery or collection rather than with a checkbox, and you accept that card payments on alcohol are subject to Stripe’s rules and may be declined by them even when we accept the shop. Not available at all in some countries — see the country list at the end of this policy.
- Cosmetics, skincare and supplements
- The product meets the labelling, ingredient and registration rules where your buyers are, and you make no claim to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent anything. A moisturiser is a cosmetic; a moisturiser that cures eczema is an unlicensed medicine.
- Health, wellness and body services
- You hold the registration or licence your practice needs — massage, physiotherapy, tattooing, piercing, aesthetics, nutrition advice — and you describe it as what it is rather than as medical treatment.
- Sexual wellness products
- Ordinary retail goods only, listed and photographed as retail goods, with an age gate. Explicit content and services are a different thing and are declined outright below, and several countries prohibit these goods entirely — see the country list at the end of this policy.
- Pre-orders and long lead times
- You state the dispatch date on the listing before the buyer pays, and you keep to it or refund. Taking payment more than 30 days before delivery is the single most common cause of a chargeback on this platform, and the chargeback is yours.
- Tickets and dated events
- You are the organiser or are authorised by them. Resale of tickets you did not issue is declined. If the event does not happen, you refund it — a credit for a future date is not a refund unless the buyer chooses it.
- Memberships and anything that repeats
- You state the price, the interval and how to stop it before the first payment is taken, and you make cancelling as easy as starting. Silent auto-renewal is declined as a deceptive practice, not merely discouraged.
- Drop-shipping and long supplier chains
- You are answerable for delivery times, customs charges and returns even though someone else ships. A shop that answers complaints with the supplier’s shipping policy is a shop we will close.
- High-value single items
- Above roughly 1,000 USD an order we may ask for identification, proof that you hold the goods, or proof of provenance before card payments continue. Resold luxury goods need documentation that they are authentic, and precious metals, stones and bullion are reviewed before card payments are enabled at all.
- Charitable and community fundraising
- You are the registered organisation or hold its written authority, you say plainly where the money goes, and you meet whatever registration your country requires of fundraisers. Raffles and prize draws are not fundraising for this purpose — they are gambling, and they are declined.
- Travel bookings and reservations
- You are booking accommodation, tours, transfers or experiences you or a named supplier will actually deliver, and we review the shop before card payments are enabled — the money is taken now and the service delivered much later, which is the shape a bank asks the most questions about. Airlines, cruises, charter flights and timeshares are declined outright below, whatever the shop is called.
- Selling into a country you are not in
- You may sell across borders, but the shop must trade from the country your Stripe account was opened in, and you must meet the consumer, labelling and tax law where your buyers are. Opening an account in one country to take payments for a business run from another is cross-border acquiring, and it is declined below.
We may ask you for a licence, a registration number, proof that you hold the stock, or identification — before you start or at any point afterwards. Card payments may stay off until we have it, and a shop that cannot produce it may be limited to chat, bank transfer and cash orders, or closed.
Section 4. Businesses we decline
Some of this is our choice. Most of it is the condition on which the whole platform keeps card acceptance. Every group carries the reason it exists, because the rules that get argued with are always the ones that look arbitrary.
Unlawful, or unlicensed where a licence is required
The first line, and the one that swallows most of the rest: if it is not lawful for you to sell it, having a shop does not make it lawful.
- anything illegal where you are, or where your buyer is
- a licensed trade carried on without the licence, or after it has lapsed
- goods or services barred by the export, import or sanctions law that applies to us or to you
- trade with a person, organisation or region under sanctions
- anything sold in breach of an order of a court or a regulator
- telecommunications manipulation equipment, including signal jammers and blockers
Financial services and money movement
Moving other people’s money is a licensed activity everywhere, and Sailo is not licensed for it: we are not a bank, a money transmitter, an escrow agent or a payment institution, and a shop cannot be used as one.
- money transmission, remittance and money orders
- currency exchange and cheque cashing
- ATMs, and any service whose product is access to cash
- peer-to-peer money transfer between people who are not buying anything
- lending of any kind, including payday loans, cash advances and buy-now-pay-later
- paying off a loan, a credit card or a mortgage by card
- debt collection, debt reduction, credit repair and mortgage relief
- bankruptcy, debt settlement and debt-negotiation services
- law firms and advisers taking client money for anything other than their own fee
- investment schemes, securities, brokerage and portfolio management
- funded proprietary trading, and selling access to a funded trading account
- insurance, warranties and extended service plans
- bail bonds
- escrow, and holding money for a third party
- neobanks, challenger banks, and anything presented to a buyer as a bank account
- shell banks, payable-through accounts and the sale of bearer shares
- prepaid cards, stored value and the resale of gift cards
- identity theft protection, credit monitoring and identity recovery services
- crowdfunding, and collecting pledges against something not yet made
Virtual currency and speculative assets
Irreversible on one side and reversible on the other: a buyer pays by card, receives something that cannot be recalled, and files a chargeback. The platform carries that asymmetry, so it does not carry the trade.
- buying, selling or exchanging cryptocurrency
- mining, staking, mining contracts and hosted hash rate
- token sales, initial coin offerings and presales
- NFTs and digital collectibles sold as an investment
- in-game currency, accounts and item trading for real money
- points, miles and loyalty balances sold on
Gambling and games of chance
Licensed in every country that permits it at all, on terms no small shop holds — and a great deal of what is sold as a giveaway is a lottery with a different word on it.
- lotteries, raffles and prize draws with a paid entry
- sports betting, tipster services and odds
- fantasy sports played for money
- casino games, slots and internet gaming
- bidding-fee and penny auctions
- mystery boxes, loot boxes and anything where what the buyer receives is decided by chance
- sweepstakes and contests with an entry fee
- games of skill played for a cash or material prize
Regulated, controlled and dangerous goods
Age-restricted, prescription-only, or capable of hurting the person who opens the parcel — and in most of these cases capable of hurting the courier first.
- controlled drugs, and anything sold to imitate one
- drug paraphernalia
- nitrous oxide, research chemicals and novel psychoactive substances
- kava, kratom and plant products sold for a psychoactive effect
- prescription medicines, pharmacies and telemedicine
- prescription-only and regulated medical devices
- ephedrine, HCG and weight-loss substances sold outside a pharmacy
- cannabis, CBD and hemp-derived products, including where they are lawful locally
- tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, vapes, e-liquid and nicotine pouches
- weapons, ammunition, gun parts, magazines and files for printing firearms
- replica and imitation firearms that are not marked as the law requires, including toys
- knives sold as weapons, and anything restricted as an offensive weapon
- stun guns, pepper spray and other self-defence weapons
- explosives, fireworks and pyrotechnics
- toxic, flammable, corrosive and radioactive materials
- restricted pesticides, chemicals sold outside their licensed use, and anything only a certified applicator may apply
- goods a postal or courier service refuses to carry
Counterfeits and infringement
Someone else’s work, sold without them. This is also the complaint we receive most often, and the one that arrives with a lawyer attached.
- counterfeits, replicas, dupes and anything described as inspired by a brand it is not
- unauthorised copies of films, music, books, software or courses
- cracked software, licence keys and accounts obtained outside their terms
- devices and services that modify a games console or defeat a copy protection
- unlicensed merchandise using someone else’s characters, logos, players or artwork
- resold stock images, fonts, templates or presets you are not licensed to redistribute
- reposted photography, designs or product images that are not yours
Adult content and services
Card acceptance for adult trade runs through specialist acquirers with age-verification obligations Sailo does not implement, and the last item in this list is reported rather than declined.
- pornography and sexually explicit content, in any medium
- live camming, custom explicit content and subscriptions to it
- escorting, companionship and any arrangement of sexual services
- strip clubs, adult venues, and door or table charges for them
- mail-order brides and marriage brokering
- any content that sexualises a person under 18, real or generated, which we report to law enforcement and to Stripe
- any sexual content involving a person who did not consent to it being sold, including intimate images shared without consent
Data, credentials and access
The stock is almost always someone else’s account, someone else’s personal data, or a lie told to a ranking system.
- personal data sold as a product, scraped databases and mailing lists
- stolen or hacked accounts, logins and credentials
- followers, likes, views, installs and reviews
- verification, badges and ranking manipulation
- SIM cards, phone numbers and accounts sold for use in verification
- doxxing, tracing and surveillance of a person without their consent
- malware, phishing kits, stresser and denial-of-service services
Deceptive, predatory and unfair practices
Defined by what the buyer understood, not by what the small print said. If a sale depends on the buyer misunderstanding it, it is in this group.
- multi-level marketing, pyramid and matrix schemes
- get-rich-quick offers, and coaching sold on a promise of income
- guaranteed returns, and any claim about money the seller cannot evidence
- unsubstantiated health, medical or weight-loss claims
- testimonials, before-and-after photographs and reviews of something that did not happen
- incentives, prizes and rewards no seller could actually deliver
- negative-option billing, silent auto-renewal, and free trials that bill without a clear warning
- prices that appear only at the end, and fees a buyer could not have seen before paying
- fake documents: diplomas, certificates, identity documents, licences, insurance, test and vaccination records
- fake references, and paid-for employment or rental histories
- essays, coursework and examinations written to be submitted as someone else’s work
- reselling something available free, or a public service, as though it were your own
- remote technical support sold off an unsolicited warning
- telemarketing, and anything sold from an unsolicited call
- door-to-door and doorstep selling
Airlines, cruises and timeshares
Money taken now for something delivered months later by a business that can stop existing in between. This is the shape behind the largest chargeback events the card networks have ever had to absorb, which is why ordinary travel bookings are a condition above and these are a flat no.
- commercial airlines, and selling seats on them
- cruise lines, and selling passages on them
- charter and private aircraft, where the flight crosses a border
- timeshares, timeshare resale, and timeshare exit services
- holiday and travel clubs sold as a membership
Government services and public money
A payment page that looks official when it is not, or that stands between a person and something their state already provides. The harm lands on the person who could not tell the difference, so it does not depend on whether the service is delivered.
- services offered by or on behalf of an embassy or a consulate
- visa, permit, licence and document applications handled without the authority’s permission
- charging for a government service without adding something the applicant could not do themselves
- disbursing grants, benefits or other government economic support
- anything presented as official, endorsed or approved when it is not
Trades that need a permission Sailo does not hold
Stripe accepts each of these only from a platform it has approved in advance for that category, and Sailo is approved as what it is: software one seller runs one shop on. Saying so here is the honest version — the alternative is accepting the shop and letting Stripe refuse its first card payment.
- online dating, matchmaking and introduction services
- cyberlockers, file hosting, and paid access to a shared drive of files
- running a platform inside your shop: letting other people open their own shops, take their own payments, or collect tips through your account
People, animals and human material
Trades that are either criminal, cruel, or impossible to carry out safely through a parcel service.
- human organs, tissue, blood, ova, sperm and other bodily material
- any offer of a person, including labour arranged under coercion
- live animals
- endangered species, ivory, and products made from protected wildlife
- animal fighting, and equipment made for it
- trophies from protected species
Hate, violence and harassment
Nothing to do with payments. We simply will not host it.
- material promoting hatred or violence against people for who they are
- terrorist and extremist material, and fundraising for it
- harassment, threats, and services sold to carry them out
- instructions for making weapons or devices intended to hurt people
- memorabilia and content that celebrates a violent crime or its perpetrator
Taking payments for someone else
The card networks call it transaction laundering, and it is the fastest way to lose an account here — ours as well as yours, which is why the fraud and enforcement clause is written as bluntly as it is.
- processing payments for a business other than the one the shop describes
- a shop whose real trade is not the trade on its page
- splitting or relabelling a payment to disguise what was bought
- accepting money through a shop for something it does not sell
- keying in card numbers taken somewhere else, so that the shop is really a card terminal
- opening an account in one country for a business run from another
- re-registering under a new shop or handle to escape a dispute rate, a suspension or a network monitoring programme
Misusing Sailo itself
The last group is about us, and it is short because it is mostly obvious.
- reselling, rebranding or white-labelling Sailo as your own product
- fake, duplicated or automated shops, handles and referral links
- manufactured referral activity, and commission claimed on traffic that did not happen
- scraping, probing or working around plan limits and rate limits
- using our name, logo or design outside the badge we place on free shops
- a shop that exists to send visitors somewhere else, or to send unsolicited messages
No list of this kind is complete, and this one is not. We may add to it when a new category of harm turns up or a payment provider requires it, and we may decline or close a shop that is plainly the same thing under another name. Where we add a category that affects a shop already trading, we give the notice in clause 18 of the Terms.
Section 5. Extra rules where your business is
Everything above holds everywhere. Some trades are additionally declined for sellers in particular countries — not because we think less of them, but because Stripe prohibits them there and a card payment would be refused whatever this page said.
The country that decides this is yours, not your buyer’s. It is the business location your Stripe account was opened in, which Stripe fixes when the account is created and does not let anyone edit afterwards.
If your country is not listed, nothing here is added to your policy. Local law may still forbid more than this page does, and establishing that stays yours.
Brazil
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- genital and nipple jewellery
- genital prosthetics
- sex accessories and lifelike sex toys
Canada
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- mortgage consulting
And accepted here only after we have reviewed the shop:
- alcohol, which is reviewed before card payments are enabled
India
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- alcohol
- airbags
- captive insurance companies
- cash couriers and currency transportation
- charities, non-profits and religious organisations
- chit funds
- currency exchange
- dating and matchmaking services
- gambling equipment
- genital prosthetics
- jewellery sold across a border
- high-value goods, precious metals and stones
- junket operators
- lobby groups and political organisations
- mining, and oil drilling or refining
- personal investment vehicles and trust service providers
- sex accessories and sex toys
- unlicensed financial institutions
- vehicle sales
Indonesia
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- domestic charter air travel
And accepted here only after we have reviewed the shop:
- alcohol
- insurance
- live chat and live streaming
- livestock
- packaged food and cosmetics
- pilgrimage and Umrah tour packages
- precious metals and jewellery
- products that need a national-standard certification
Japan
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- advisory services for drop-shipping and resale
- animals
- consumer-to-consumer services outside Stripe Connect
- consultation on online gaming, gambling, trading or investments
- donations to individuals
- fundraising for a business this policy declines
- genital and nipple jewellery
- genital prosthetics
- health instruments
- industrial waste and water-purifier devices
- international marriage brokerage
- mortgage consulting
- private investigators and personal protection services
- psychic services and fortune telling
- sex accessories and lifelike sex toys
- any shop without the commercial disclosure page the Specified Commercial Transactions Act requires
Malaysia
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- domestic charter air travel
- genital and nipple jewellery
- genital prosthetics
- matchmaking
- sex accessories and sex toys
Mexico
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- adoption agencies
- currency exchange across a border
- debt collection agencies
- direct-marketing travel
- domestic charter air travel
- electronic cigarettes sold without the card present
- ephedrine
- games console modification devices
- genital and nipple jewellery
- genital prosthetics
- HCG weight-loss products
- investment services
- lifelike sex toys
- penny auctions
- private investigators and personal protection services
- psychic services and fortune telling
- search engine optimisation services
- telemedicine
Singapore
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- domestic charter air travel
- genital and nipple jewellery
- advertising for anything unlawful in Singapore
- sex accessories and sex toys
Thailand
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- alcohol
- bodyguard services
- charities
- dating services
- historical artefacts
- new and used vehicle sales
- private investigators and detective agencies
- psychic services and fortune telling
- timeshares
- vitamins
And accepted here only after we have reviewed the shop:
- domestic charter air travel
- food and cosmetics
- hotels, tour operators and transport
- insurance
United Arab Emirates
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- domestic charter air travel
- gambling equipment
- genital prosthetics
- historical artefacts, ivory and prison-made products
- matchmaking services
- private investigators
- sex accessories and sex toys
United States
Declined for sellers here, in addition to everything above:
- extended warranties
- medical benefit packages that are neither government nor insurance
- mortgage consulting
- shipping brokerage and freight forwarding without the authorisation it requires
Section 6. How we check, and what happens then
We screen a shop’s own words — its name, description and catalogue — when card payments are switched on, and again from time to time afterwards. Stripe runs its own checks on every account we open for you: identity and business verification, sanctions screening, and its own prohibited-business review. Neither of us is the only line, and neither of us reads every language perfectly, so passing a check is not approval of a trade this policy declines.
Where a shop plainly falls in clause 4, we decline it and say which group. Where it might, we ask you before deciding anything — a question is cheaper than a wrongly closed shop, and the words a small business uses about itself are ambiguous far more often than they are evasive.
When we decline a shop, we say why unless the law stops us, your data stays exportable for the period in the Privacy Policy, and we refund the unused part of any paid plan. The exception is the child-safety item under Adult content and services, which is reported rather than answered.
Section 7. If you are not sure
Ask before you build it. Email support@sailo.store with what you sell, who to, and how it reaches them, and you will get a straight answer. That is considerably cheaper for both of us than a catalogue built against a shop we then have to close.
support@sailo.storeKhaleel Musleh
920 Masson Ave
San Bruno, California 94066
United States