Acceptable use policy
This Acceptable Use Policy (the “AUP”) governs your use of the Genius Checkout platform and applies in addition to our Terms of Service. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate it.
1. Prohibited industries and goods
You may not use Genius Checkout to process payments for any of the following:
- Illegal goods, services, or controlled substances under the laws of any jurisdiction in which you operate or in which the buyer resides.
- Adult content or services, escort services, and any sexually explicit material.
- Gambling, lotteries, sweepstakes, or games of chance — unless you hold all required licenses and have given us written notice and we have approved the activity in writing.
- Multi-level marketing schemes, pyramid schemes, “get rich quick” programs, and Ponzi schemes.
- Weapons, ammunition, explosives, and related accessories.
- Counterfeit goods, replicas of trademarked items, and any goods that infringe a third party’s intellectual property.
- Drug paraphernalia, “legal highs”, and substances marketed as alternatives to controlled drugs.
- Unlicensed pharmaceuticals or medical devices.
- Cryptocurrency exchanges, ICOs, NFTs, and decentralized-finance products — without prior written approval.
- Debt-collection services, credit-repair services, and credit counseling without applicable licensing.
- Unregistered investment opportunities, securities, and binary options.
- Door-to-door, telemarketing, or high-pressure outbound sales operations.
2. Prohibited behavior
Regardless of industry, you may not:
- Process test, fictitious, or card-testing transactions through live keys.
- Submit transactions you know to be fraudulent or unauthorized by the cardholder.
- Engage in any practice that violates the rules of Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or any other card network or wallet provider.
- Manipulate refunds, chargebacks, or disputes to your advantage or to a buyer’s detriment.
- Misrepresent your business, your products, your location, or the goods and services for which the buyer is being charged.
- Disable required security controls (3-D Secure, fraud signals, address verification) without our written approval.
- Reverse-engineer, scrape, or attempt to circumvent any technical limits of the platform.
- Use Genius Checkout to send unsolicited communications (spam) or to phish for credentials or payment data.
- Upload, distribute, or facilitate malware, ransomware, or any malicious code.
- Resell or sublicense Genius Checkout services without a written reseller agreement.
3. Fraud monitoring
We monitor for patterns consistent with fraud, card-testing, and money-laundering. We may, without prior notice, hold transactions, request additional verification, pause your account, or refuse to process specific payments where we reasonably believe activity violates this AUP, applicable law, or card-network rules.
4. Enforcement
Suspected violations are reviewed by our team. We may, at our discretion:
- Issue a written warning and require remediation.
- Suspend specific gateways or transactions while we investigate.
- Suspend or terminate your account immediately for material violations.
- Report violations to law enforcement, card networks, or acquiring banks where required.
Termination for AUP violations does not entitle you to a refund of fees already paid.
5. Reporting violations
If you believe another merchant or account is violating this AUP, report it to [email protected].
6. Updates
We may update this AUP from time to time. The current version will always be posted at this URL with a revised “Last updated” date. Material changes will be notified through the platform.