Restricted Businesses

1.Introduction & Scope

This list identifies business activities that are prohibited on the securepayAPI Services or that require pre-approval before you may begin processing. It is an integral part of our Terms of Service and our Acceptable Use Policy, and applies in addition to the Network Rules of the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, UnionPay) and to all applicable U.S. federal, state, and local laws and regulations of any other jurisdiction in which you, your principals, or your customers are located.

This list is not exhaustive. securepayAPI may, in its sole discretion, decline, suspend, or terminate Services for any business, product, or activity it considers to present an unacceptable legal, regulatory, financial, fraud, or reputational risk, even if not listed below. We may add, remove, or reclassify entries on this list at any time, including for changes in the Network Rules, in our banking partners' risk policies, or in applicable law.

2.How to Read this List

• Prohibited — these businesses, products, and services are not supported on the Services. We will not approve or continue to process Transactions for them, regardless of licence, jurisdiction, or volume.
• Restricted — these businesses, products, and services may be supported on a case-by-case basis after written pre-approval from securepayAPI. You must contact us at legal@securepayapi.com with details of your business model, licences, and risk controls before processing any Transaction in a Restricted category. Processing without pre-approval is a breach of our Terms.

Where a category is listed as both, the more restrictive treatment applies (i.e., a sub-activity that is Prohibited remains so even if the broader category is Restricted).

3.Sanctions & Geographic Restrictions

The Services are not available, and may not be used directly or indirectly, in connection with any of the following:

• any country, region, or territory that is the subject of comprehensive U.S. sanctions, currently including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Crimea region, the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, the so-called Luhansk People's Republic, and any other comprehensively sanctioned territory designated from time to time;
• any individual or entity that appears on the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list, the Foreign Sanctions Evaders list, the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications list, the Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions list, the U.S. Commerce Department's Denied Persons or Entity list, or analogous lists maintained by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, or other applicable authorities;
• activities involving prohibited end-uses (such as proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, military end-use in restricted destinations, or unlicensed exports of controlled items) under U.S. export-control law;
• businesses that are owned, controlled, or majority-beneficially-owned by sanctioned persons.

We screen Merchants, beneficial owners, control persons, and counterparties against these lists at onboarding and on an ongoing basis. Inclusion or addition to a sanctions list will result in immediate suspension of the Services and, where required, blocking of funds.

4.Prohibited Businesses

You may not use the Services in connection with the following businesses, products, services, or content. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

4.1 Illegal Goods, Services & Content

• illegal drugs, controlled substances, and analogue or designer drugs (including kratom and kava where prohibited locally);
• drug paraphernalia, equipment, or chemicals primarily marketed for the manufacture or use of illegal drugs;
• any goods or services that are illegal under applicable law in the jurisdiction of the Merchant or the Customer;
• fake, forged, or fraudulent identification, academic, or government documents;
• essay mills, contract-cheating services, and other academic-fraud services;
• content that incites or glorifies hatred, terrorism, violence, harassment, or discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or other protected characteristic;
• human body parts or fluids (excluding hair, teeth, and similar items lawfully sold);
• products derived from endangered or protected species, or otherwise prohibited under CITES.

4.2 Cannabis, Marijuana & Related

• cannabis, marijuana, and any product containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) above the federal threshold under U.S. law (currently 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight);
• cannabis dispensaries, cultivation operations, and brokerages;
• hydroponic and other cultivation equipment marketed primarily for the cultivation of marijuana;
• courses, consulting, or information services teaching how to grow or distribute marijuana.

Hemp-derived products that are fully compliant with federal and applicable state law (including CBD products with no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC) are Restricted rather than Prohibited (see Section 5).

4.3 Adult Content & Sexual Services

• prostitution, escort services, sexual massage, and similar in-person sexual services;
• strip clubs, adult cabarets, and topless bars;
• pornography and other adult content (whether photographic, video, audio, written, animated, or AI-generated) intended primarily for sexual gratification, including pay-per-view and subscription platforms hosting such content;
• fetish products and services;
• genital prosthetics and realistic sex toys (where prohibited locally);
• mail-order spouse and international matchmaking services.

4.4 Weapons, Ammunition & Hazardous Materials

• firearms (including handguns, rifles, shotguns, and antique firearms), ammunition, magazines, frames and receivers, suppressors, and any other regulated firearm parts or accessories;
• military-grade weapons, explosives, fireworks, flares, and pyrotechnic devices;
• 3D-printable firearm files and ghost-gun kits;
• illegal knives and other illegal weapons (where prohibited locally);
• radioactive, toxic, flammable, or explosive materials, except as expressly allowed under our Restricted hazardous-materials category;
• signal-jamming, descrambler, decryption, and similar telecommunications-manipulation devices.

4.5 Gambling, Lotteries & Skill-with-Prize

• casinos (online and land-based), poker rooms, and card rooms;
• sports betting, online betting, parlays, prop bets, and bookmaking;
• lotteries, raffles, and sweepstakes (other than charitable raffles processed under the Restricted category);
• fantasy sports leagues that award monetary or in-kind prizes;
• games of skill where players pay to enter and may win cash or material prizes;
• bidding-fee or penny auctions;
• U.S.-based gambling services, regardless of licence;
• binary options.

4.6 Financial & Money Services

• shell banks, bearer-share entities, and entities formed primarily to obscure beneficial ownership;
• unlicensed money services businesses, money transmitters, and remittance providers;
• check cashing, payday loans, and other unsecured short-term consumer lending of a predatory nature;
• credit-repair, credit-supervision, and credit-monitoring services that promise to improve credit scores or remove accurate negative information;
• debt-settlement, debt-negotiation, and debt-consolidation services targeted at consumers;
• ATMs and ATM-as-a-service offerings;
• P2P money transfer and bill-payment aggregators not pre-approved by securepayAPI;
• unlicensed securities brokerage, investment advisory, and trading platforms;
• bail bonds and bankruptcy attorneys advertising debt-related services to consumers;
• non-FDIC-insured neobank-style consumer deposit accounts not operated by a chartered bank.

4.7 Cryptocurrency & Virtual Assets

• initial coin offerings (ICOs), token pre-sales, and similar primary token issuances;
• cryptocurrency mining-as-a-service and staking-as-a-service offered to retail consumers;
• secondary marketplaces for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) where the platform itself takes a fee on resale;
• leveraged or margin trading of cryptocurrency, contracts for difference (CFDs), and crypto options for retail consumers;
• crypto mixers, tumblers, and privacy-coin-only services;
• token sales of stocks, securities, or other regulated instruments without proper registration.

4.8 Intellectual Property & Counterfeit

• counterfeit, replica, or fake goods bearing trademarks of third parties without authorisation;
• unlicensed sale or distribution of music, film, software, books, or other copyrighted works;
• tools or services designed to circumvent copyright protection or technical-protection measures;
• unauthorised parallel imports prohibited by trademark or import regulations;
• any goods or services infringing patents, trade secrets, or rights of publicity.

4.9 Deceptive, Abusive & High-Pressure Practices

• pyramid schemes, chain letters, and multi-level marketing schemes that compensate participants primarily for recruitment;
• get-rich-quick schemes, work-from-home programmes promising guaranteed income, and unrealistic-incentive offers;
• negative-option billing, undisclosed automatic renewals, and pre-checked opt-ins for paid subscriptions;
• card-testing, BIN-testing, and other operations designed to validate or enumerate stolen payment credentials;
• chargeback-evasion services, including masking the merchant of record or rotating descriptors to defeat dispute monitoring;
• front-end fraud schemes (false testimonials, fake reviews, fake influencer endorsements, false scarcity);
• unsolicited cold-call telemarketing of consumer products, including outbound robocall sales;
• door-to-door sales of subscription services, vacation packages, or financial products, where prohibited;
• any other business or practice that securepayAPI reasonably considers to be unfair, deceptive, or abusive.

4.10 Government & Identity Services

• unauthorised provision of government services or unauthorised use of government seals, symbols, or identifiers;
• passport, visa, immigration, or driver's-licence services not authorised by the issuing government;
• identity-theft-protection services that promise indemnification of losses or that engage in unauthorised credit-monitoring;
• private-investigator and detective services targeted at consumers, where prohibited locally.

4.11 Aggregators & Hidden Sub-Merchants

• processing of Transactions on behalf of undisclosed third-party merchants (transaction laundering, factoring);
• payment-facilitator, marketplace, or platform models not pre-approved and contractually structured with securepayAPI;
• cross-border acquiring where the merchant is established outside the jurisdiction permitted by the Network Rules;
• using the Services as a primary virtual terminal for manual key-entry of card data without point-of-sale presence.

4.12 Card-Network MCC Categories (Industry-Level)

The following Merchant Category Code (MCC) groupings are likewise prohibited on the Services. They complement the categorised list above; where a category appears in both, the more restrictive treatment applies.

• airlines and air carriers — all commercial airlines, charter and private aircraft operators, and air-travel aggregators (including, but not limited to, United, American, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Spirit, Frontier, Hawaiian, Air Canada, WestJet, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, SAS, Iberia, TAP Portugal, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air, Norwegian, Vueling, ITA Airways, Swiss, Austrian, LOT, Croatia Airlines, Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Saudia, Royal Air Maroc, EgyptAir, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Air Algerie, Tunis Air, El Al, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways, flydubai, Riyadh Air, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, JAL, ANA, Korean Air, Asiana, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Air China, Hainan, Xiamen, EVA Air, Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Garuda, Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Air India, IndiGo, Jet Airways, Vistara, Air New Zealand, Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Fiji Airways, Aerolíneas Argentinas, LATAM, Avianca, Aeromexico, Copa, GOL, Azul, TAM, Caribbean Airlines, Cayman Airways, Bahamasair, all other named carriers in the card-network airline list, and any other MCC 4511 / 3000-series airline)
• money transfer and remittance services
• marketplaces and aggregator platforms
• guns and ammunition shops
• pawn shops
• direct marketing — insurance services
• direct marketing — travel-related arrangement services
• door-to-door sales
• direct marketing — catalog merchants
• direct marketing — combination catalog and retail merchants
• direct marketing — outbound telemarketing
• direct marketing — continuity / subscription merchants
• direct marketing — other direct marketers (not elsewhere classified)
• adult content and services
• financial institutions — manual cash disbursements
• financial institutions — automated cash disbursements
• financial institutions — merchandise, services, and debt repayment
• non-financial institutions — foreign currency, liquid / cryptocurrency assets, money orders, travelers cheques, debt repayment
• non-financial institutions — stored-value card purchase / load
• security brokers and dealers
• dating services
• collection agencies
• detective agencies, protective services, and security services (including armored cars and guard dogs)
• government-owned lotteries (U.S. region)
• government-licensed online casinos and on-line gambling (U.S. region)
• government-licensed horse and dog racing (U.S. region)
• betting, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting, wagers, and games of chance
• bail and bond payments
• tax payments
• government services (not elsewhere classified)
• postal services — government only
• U.S. federal government agencies or departments
• government-owned lotteries (non-U.S. region)
• key-entry telecom merchants providing single local or long-distance phone calls via a central access number

5.Restricted Businesses (Pre-Approval Required)

The following businesses, products, and services may be supported by securepayAPI on a case-by-case basis. To request review, contact legal@securepayapi.com before processing any Transaction in these categories. We may require additional documentation, licences, audited financials, enhanced fraud controls, higher Reserves, or other risk-mitigation measures.

5.1 Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals & Telemedicine

• internet pharmacies, prescription pharmaceuticals, and prescription-delivery services;
• regulated medical devices, including prescription medical devices and diagnostics;
• telemedicine, telehealth, and online health-practitioner services;
• medical, dental, ophthalmic, and hospital equipment and supplies;
• medical spas, IV-therapy bars, and similar wellness services with regulated services;
• nutraceuticals and dietary supplements with health, weight-loss, or therapeutic claims;
• veterinary practices.

5.2 CBD, Tobacco & Age-Restricted Products

• hemp-derived CBD products that comply with U.S. federal law and the law of every state in which they are sold (no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC);
• tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, vaping devices, e-liquids, and herbal smoking products, in each case offered only via age-verified channels;
• alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, spirits) sold by licensed sellers using age verification at point of sale and at delivery;
• kratom and kava products in jurisdictions where lawful.

5.3 Financial Services (Licensed)

• licensed money services businesses, money transmitters, and currency exchanges;
• licensed lenders (including mortgage lenders and originators);
• licensed buy-now-pay-later providers;
• licensed insurance brokers, agents, and carriers (life and non-life);
• licensed escrow account providers;
• cryptocurrency exchanges, custodians, and over-the-counter desks operating under applicable money-services or virtual-asset-service-provider licences;
• prepaid-access providers, gift-card programmes, and stored-value issuers;
• fines and penalty collections by authorised collectors.

5.4 Travel & Hospitality

• commercial airlines, charter and private aircraft operators, and air-travel aggregators;
• cruise lines and cruise booking;
• tour operators, travel agencies, and travel clubs;
• timeshare sales and timeshare-maintenance fees;
• vacation-rental and short-term-rental aggregators;
• ticketing agencies and resale.

5.5 Charities, Crowdfunding & Political

• nonprofit organisations and charity fundraising;
• crowdfunding and equity-crowdfunding platforms;
• charitable raffles and sweepstakes (only where lawful in the relevant jurisdiction);
• political campaigns, political action committees, and lobbying organisations;
• religious organisations and faith-based fundraising.

5.6 Dating & Relationship Services

• online dating and matchmaking platforms (excluding mail-order-spouse and international-matchmaking services, which are Prohibited under Section 4.3);
• standalone tipping and creator-monetisation services associated with dating-style content.

5.7 High-Value & High-Risk Goods

• jewellery, watches, precious stones and metals, and silverware sold above customary retail thresholds;
• art dealers, galleries, and auction houses;
• high-value designer fashion (handbags, footwear, accessories) commonly used as alternative store of value;
• vehicles, vehicle parts, vehicle imports, and dealerships;
• pawn shops operating under licence;
• antiques, ancestry research, and historical artefacts (subject to provenance documentation).

5.8 Subscription, Membership & Digital Content

• subscription clubs and membership programmes that charge recurring Fees;
• cloud-storage, file-sharing, VPN, and similar internet-access services;
• live-streaming services, including those involving creator donations or in-app virtual currency;
• online tutoring, course platforms, and digital learning, where unaccredited.

5.9 Hazardous Materials (B2B)

• industrial chemicals (e.g., hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid, peptides, research chemicals) sold to qualified business customers under appropriate handling, shipping, and end-use controls;
• pesticides and other regulated chemicals sold to licensed professional users.

B2C sales of hazardous materials are Prohibited under Section 4.4.

5.10 Direct Marketing & Negative Option

• direct-response, infomercial, and catalogue sales (where lawful and clearly disclosed);
• continuity, auto-renewal, and free-trial-to-paid-subscription offers, only with the disclosures and cancellation flows required by applicable law (e.g., FTC Negative Option Rule, California ARL).

6.Prohibited Use of the Services

Even where your business is permitted, you may not use the Services to:

• process Transactions with false, manipulated, or inaccurate identity, business, beneficial-ownership, or product information;
• fail to notify securepayAPI promptly of material changes to your business model, ownership, sales channels, products, or volumes;
• process Transactions on behalf of any third-party seller or unrevealed sub-merchant (transaction laundering, factoring);
• process card-testing, BIN-testing, account-validation, or velocity-attack Transactions;
• use the Services as a primary virtual terminal for manual entry of card data without point-of-sale presence;
• process Transactions where the underlying sale is fraudulent, where there is no good-faith offer of goods or services, or where consideration is illusory;
• circumvent, defeat, or deliberately reduce Chargeback ratios through descriptor rotation, MID rotation, or related techniques;
• share cardholder information with other companies for cross-sell, list sale, or unsolicited marketing;
• use securepayAPI's name, trademarks, or logos other than as expressly authorised, or imply an endorsement, partnership, or affiliation that does not exist;
• access or use the Services in any way that violates the Network Rules, applicable law, our Terms, or our Acceptable Use Policy.

7.Updates to this List

We may update this list at any time, including to reflect changes in law, Network Rules, or our risk policies. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent version. Material changes will be communicated through the dashboard or by email at least thirty (30) days before they take effect, except where a shorter period is required by law, by the Network Rules, or to address a security or legal risk.

8.Contact

To request review of a Restricted activity, to clarify whether your business is supported, or to report a suspected violation of this list, contact:

Lumiria LLC d/b/a securepayAPI
1451 Richardson Rd. Ste. 109 #127, Apex, NC 27523, USA
Email: legal@securepayapi.com
Phone: +1 844 680 0679