Stripe Prohibited Businesses: The List Explained by Vertical

The lines that catch a business model, whatever it sells

A business can sell an allowed product and still land on the prohibited side through the way it sells. These lines sit in the unfair or deceptive practices block and in the prohibited uses section:

• Negative option marketing, negative option membership clubs and reduced-price trials with unclear or hidden pricing.
• Telemarketing and door-to-door sales.
• High-pressure upselling, deceptive or fake testimonials and outrageous claims.
• Using Stripe mainly as a virtual terminal, meaning card numbers keyed in by hand.
• Processing for products or services you did not disclose in your account application, or on behalf of another undisclosed merchant.
• Cross-border acquiring, where your business address is outside the jurisdiction of the Stripe entity that acquires for you, unless card network rules permit it.
• Evading card network chargeback monitoring programs.

The undisclosed-products line is the one that surprises merchants. Adding a product category after approval without telling Stripe is a prohibited use in its own right, whatever the status of the new category. An underwriter at any acquirer reads the same way: the business that was approved is the business that was described.

A worked reading: one store, three lines

Read the list by product, then by billing model, then by country. Take an invented US online store that sells nicotine e-liquid, CBD gummies and a monthly box with a discounted first month.

1. E-liquid. The tobacco line makes it restricted, and the US note limits electronic products to those the FDA has authorized. The store needs Stripe’s approval and a catalog that matches the FDA list.
2. CBD gummies. CBD with negligible THC is restricted, and the prohibited marijuana block mentions CBD edibles in its line about products above the local THC limit. The wording leaves doubt about edibles under the limit, so the store needs a written answer from Stripe before it sells them.
3. The discounted first month. A subscription as such is not on the list. The same offer becomes prohibited if the price after the first month is unclear or hidden at checkout.

Two product lines need prior approval, and the third depends on one checkout page. None of that shows in the store’s own description of itself as a wellness shop.

What a status means for an account that is already open

Being approved once does not freeze your status. The page says you must remain compliant with the list to use Stripe, and it describes no grace period for accounts opened under an earlier version.

Three things can move under an open account. The list itself changes, in both directions. An approval for a restricted business is tied to one Stripe service and can be modified or revoked at any time. And the services agreement lets Stripe suspend an account immediately when the user breaches the agreement or when Stripe reasonably believes the business presents an unacceptable risk, terminate it for the same reasons, or close it for convenience with the notice the law requires.

MATCH, Mastercard’s file of terminated merchants, is a separate question. An acquirer may add a merchant only for one of the reason codes in Mastercard’s rules, which cover conduct such as excessive chargebacks, fraud and illegal transactions. Belonging to a category Stripe’s policy excludes is not a reason code. The conduct behind a closure can be one, for example sales that are illegal where you ship. Merchants have no access to the file, so checking the MATCH list comes down to a written question to the acquirer behind the account. If the closure notice has already arrived, the sequence for the first two days is in the guide to a closed Stripe or PayPal account. A closure often comes with Stripe holding funds against future disputes, which is a separate matter from the list.

What does not work

Four reactions to the list make things worse.

• Rewording the business. Calling CBD a wellness oil or a casino a gaming app runs into the page’s ban on false or misleading information about the nature of the business, and any processor’s review reads the website and the transactions, whatever the description says.
• A second account after a closure. The services agreement forbids opening an account for a user Stripe has suspended or terminated unless Stripe approves.
• Running the listed product through an account approved for something else. That is the undisclosed-products line again.
• Assuming a specialist takes everything. Acquirers that underwrite high-risk verticals accept categories mainstream platforms exclude, and they still refuse counterfeit goods, pyramid schemes, trial offers with hidden pricing and anything illegal where you sell it. If the reason Stripe gives is one of those, changing processor will not help.

What to send if your vertical is on the list

A status on Stripe’s page tells you where Stripe stands. Whether an acquirer that underwrites your vertical would take the file rests on documents: licenses, lab reports or authorizations where the product is regulated, 3 to 6 months of processing statements, and a website whose terms match what you sell. What a high-risk merchant account includes explains the structure you would be moving to, and the 27 verticals we underwrite are on the industries page. If you are looking for a payment gateway like Stripe that accepts your vertical, compare how each one underwrites, what reserve it asks for and how it settles before you compare prices.

Before you apply, write down the line of Stripe’s list that applies to you, export your statements and dispute history from the dashboard while you still have access, and gather the licenses your vertical requires. Then send the file for an underwriting review. A person reads it, and the answer comes within 1 business day: written terms, a list of what is missing, or a no with its reason. The review costs nothing.