Last updated 10 May 2026

Acceptable use policy

Zillo is built for legitimate small businesses. Most of what you’d ever want to sell is fine. This policy spells out the categories that aren’t. It mirrors Stripe’s restricted businesses list (because Stripe processes the money, and a Stripe ban means you can’t sell anyway), with a few Zillo-specific additions.

1. Things we won’t support

You may not use Zillo to sell, fundraise for, or facilitate any of the following:

Illegal or regulated activity

  • Anything illegal where you’re selling it, or where the buyer is buying it.
  • Goods or services that infringe someone else’s intellectual property.
  • Drugs, drug paraphernalia, or substances marketed as recreational drugs (including controlled or prescription drugs without proper licensing).
  • Tobacco, vaping products, and nicotine products in jurisdictions where online sale is restricted.
  • Firearms, ammunition, weapons, explosives.
  • Gambling, lotteries, sweepstakes, and games of chance with real-money prizes.
  • Cannabis and cannabis-derived products, including CBD, where local law restricts online sale.
  • Any product or service that requires a licence you don’t hold.

Adult content and high-risk industries

  • Pornography and sexually explicit content, including erotic services and adult subscriptions.
  • Escort services, dating services targeting prostitution, or services facilitating prostitution.
  • Get-rich-quick schemes, multi-level marketing where income claims aren’t substantiated, pyramid schemes.
  • Debt collection services, debt consolidation, credit repair.
  • Cheque cashing, payday lending, salary advance.
  • Cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency mining services, and ICO promotions.
  • Counterfeit goods, replicas, knockoffs.

Fraud and abuse

  • Anything misrepresented in price, nature, or quality.
  • Resale of tickets above face value where prohibited (e.g. NZ’s Major Events Management Act).
  • Sites and services that promote, facilitate, or instruct on illegal acts.
  • Phishing operations, credential harvesting, or scam pages built to look like a legitimate brand.
  • Hate speech, harassment campaigns, or content inciting violence.

Things that can’t be honoured

  • Pre-orders for products with no delivery date and no realistic chance of fulfilment.
  • “Charitable” fundraisers run by anyone other than a registered charity, where the funds aren’t going where the page says they are.
  • Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled or services with hidden auto-renewals.
  • Bookings or experiences you don’t actually deliver.

2. Stripe’s policy is the floor

Whatever Stripe forbids, we forbid. Stripe’s restricted businesses list is the operating floor of this policy. If Stripe won’t process your payment, Zillo can’t take the sale, regardless of what we’d say. Stripe’s up-to-date restricted businesses list is published at stripe.com/restricted-businesses.

3. Things we’ll review case by case

Some categories aren’t banned outright but require a human look. If you’re selling any of these, contact trust@zillo.app before you go live so we can confirm we can support you:

  • Alcohol where age verification is needed (e.g. wine clubs delivering to NZ or Australia).
  • Live event ticketing with capacity over 1,000 attendees, or events with significant safety considerations.
  • Crowdfunding or pre-order campaigns with delivery dates over 90 days out.
  • Health-related products with claims that touch medical regulation.
  • Non-fungible tokens or digital collectibles with secondary-market expectations.
  • Any product or service where consumers might reasonably expect statutory protections (financial advice, regulated insurance, medical devices).

4. Truth in marketing

Zillo storefronts must accurately describe what you’re selling. Hidden charges, deceptive pricing, fake scarcity countdowns, and bait-and-switch tactics all breach this policy.

5. Customer service expectations

You agree to honour your published refund and cancellation policy, deliver what you sold, and respond to legitimate customer enquiries in reasonable time. Repeated failures to deliver, or a sustained pattern of customer complaints, are grounds for suspension.

6. Reporting and enforcement

If you spot a Zillo-hosted storefront breaching this policy, email trust@zillo.app. We investigate every report and we take action quickly when we confirm a breach. Action ranges from a warning, to feature suspension, to full account closure.

If we suspend or close your account for breaching this policy, your customers’ funds remain with Stripe and the merchant of record relationship is unaffected. You can issue refunds through Stripe directly.

7. Changes

We update this policy as new categories of abuse emerge. Material changes will be notified in the dashboard and by email at least 30 days before they take effect, except where the change addresses an active threat (in which case we may update the policy immediately and explain why).

8. Contact

Questions: trust@zillo.app. Or ask the AI inside your dashboard. We’d much rather you ask up front than build out a storefront we can’t support.