anyshop.io Acceptable Use Policy

Status: draft. Not yet published. Effective: TBD (with platform launch). Companion documents: SPEC.md (product spec), Terms of Service (to be drafted).

0. Why this policy is explicit

Most platforms in this space publish vague AUPs that say "don't do anything illegal" and then quietly let everything through until a payment processor forces them to clean up. That approach poisons the platform's PSP relationships, drives away serious sellers, and ends in the kind of trust collapse that took Shoppy.gg from a credible business to a 1.4-star Trustpilot graveyard.

We are writing this AUP to be specific, enforceable, and honest. Sellers should be able to read this document in five minutes and know exactly whether they belong here. PSP underwriters should be able to read it and have no surprises. Buyers should be able to read it and know what kinds of sellers will and will not appear on anyshop.io.

If a category isn't explicitly permitted or prohibited below, ask us. We will publish the answer.

1. Who this applies to

This AUP applies to every seller who creates an account on anyshop.io, every product they list, every order they fulfill, and every message they send through our infrastructure. It also applies to any third party they invite to manage their store (team members, contractors, resellers).

Violations by team members are the seller's responsibility. The seller is the principal account-holder and is accountable for everything that happens on their store.

2. Permitted product categories

You may sell the following digital goods and services on anyshop.io. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive — anything in the same spirit as these is allowed:

Software & code

Original software licenses sold by their author or authorized publisher — desktop, mobile, plugins, extensions, scripts, themes
API access to your own service
Source code, code snippets, libraries that you authored or hold redistribution rights to
Font licenses (your own fonts, or you hold reseller rights)

Game keys

Steam keys, Epic keys, GOG keys, Microsoft Store keys, console keys — provided you have the right to sell them. Acceptable rights sources:
- You are the game's publisher or developer
- You hold a distribution agreement with the publisher (Humble Partner, Fanatical, IndieGala, Green Man Gaming, etc.)
- You are a registered retailer with publisher-supplied stock
Game gift cards for legitimate platforms (Steam Wallet, PSN, Xbox, Nintendo eShop) where you hold reseller rights
DLC, in-game cosmetic packs, season passes — same rights requirements as base game keys

Media & creative assets

Music, audio samples, sound packs, sound effects (your own or licensed for resale)
Video files, stock footage, motion graphics templates
E-books, PDFs, written guides authored by you
Stock photography, illustrations, 3D models, design assets (your own or licensed for resale)
Templates: design templates (Figma, Photoshop, etc.), document templates, web templates

Learning & community

Online courses, video tutorials, recorded workshops
Live coaching, consultations, and "done-for-you" services
Newsletters and paid subscription content
Membership access to legitimate Discord servers, Telegram groups, or forums

Subscriptions & access

Subscriptions to your own SaaS product
Membership tiers for content you produce
License keys for software you publish

Misc digital goods

Notion templates, Airtable bases, spreadsheet templates
Gift cards / vouchers for your own business
Domain names you own
Discord roles for a community you own and operate

3. Prohibited product categories

The following are not permitted on anyshop.io at V0. We will reject listings, refund affected buyers (where the seller has not), and suspend or terminate accounts that violate this list.

3.1 Game accounts and gray-market keys

Region-locked / region-restricted game keys — keys priced for one regional market (Russia, Argentina, Turkey, India, etc.) that are then resold to buyers outside that region. This is the single biggest source of chargebacks and publisher takedown demands in the game-key market. Sellers who repeatedly list region-locked keys will be removed regardless of their stated rights.
Game keys without rights. If you cannot demonstrate one of the rights sources listed in §2 (publisher, authorized distributor, registered retailer with publisher stock), the listing will be removed. We may ask for documentation at any time; failure to produce it is grounds for removal.
Game accounts — Steam accounts, Epic accounts, Fortnite accounts, League of Legends accounts, World of Warcraft accounts, or any account on any game platform. Boosted, unboosted, new, aged — all banned. Reason: chargeback rate on game accounts is roughly 5× the rate on legitimate keys, and account sales violate every major publisher's ToS in ways that expose the platform to publisher takedown.
In-game currency sold for real-world money (Robux, V-Bucks, FIFA coins, gold farming, etc.)
Account boosting services for any game (rank boosting, MMR boosting, achievement boosting)
Account recovery services for someone else's account

Game keys with provable rights are permitted (see §2). Game accounts and gray-market regional keys are not, and will not be at V0 or V1. We may revisit account-sale support in V2 within a walled-off, KYC-mandatory, separate-PSP tier.

3.2 Cheats, exploits, and hostile software

Game cheats, aimbots, wallhacks, ESP, macros designed to evade anti-cheat systems
Botting tools, auto-clickers marketed for unattended gameplay or platform abuse
Cracking tools, keygens, license bypassers, software activators
Stresser / booter / DDoS-for-hire services
RATs, keyloggers, info-stealers, password crackers
Malware, ransomware, or any software whose primary purpose is to compromise systems
Phishing kits, scam page templates
"Educational" framings of any of the above

3.3 Pirated, counterfeit, and unlicensed material

Copyrighted material you do not own or have a clear license to resell
Cracked software, re-uploads of paid software, "free Photoshop" keys, MS Office activators
Leaked content (TV episodes, films, music, books, courses, paid newsletters)
Counterfeit fonts, design assets, or templates rebranded as your own
Paid courses re-sold by someone other than the original author

3.4 Platform-violation services

Social-media followers, likes, views, subscribers, retweets, comments (any platform — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Twitch, Spotify, etc.)
Engagement-pod services, bot armies, fake-account farms
Account-warming services
Spotify play services, podcast download services, ranking manipulation
Review-buying services for App Store, Play Store, Amazon, Trustpilot, Yelp, Google
Anything that violates the terms of service of the platform it operates against

3.5 Gambling and high-risk financial

Online gambling, casino access, lottery participation
Sports-prediction services that claim guaranteed wins or make explicit money-back-on-loss promises
Cryptocurrency mining services, cloud mining
Token presales, NFT mint allowlists, airdrop guides marketed as financial opportunities
"Guaranteed return" schemes of any kind — forex, crypto, stock, real estate
Get-rich-quick guides, MLM materials, pyramid recruitment
ICO promotion services

What IS permitted in financial / trading content (with conditions in §5):

Trading signals for forex, crypto, stocks, sports — provided the listing makes no guaranteed-return claims and includes the standard "past performance does not guarantee future results" disclosure on the product page
Copy-trading and signal subscriptions — same disclosure requirement
Educational content about trading, investing, betting analysis — sold as education, not as a money-making product
Betting tips and analysis — sold as analysis, not as guarantees; no money-back-on-loss claims
Trading bots and indicators — sold as software (per §2.Software), not as profit guarantees

If you sell in this category, your refund policy should explicitly address the impossibility of guaranteeing trading outcomes. Sellers who run high chargeback rates in this category will be reviewed regardless of stated disclosures.

3.6 Adult, harmful, and illegal content

Pornographic or sexually explicit content
Content depicting or marketing toward minors
Hate speech, content promoting violence against any group, extremist material, terrorist material
Self-harm or suicide content
Drugs, controlled substances, paraphernalia, prescription medication
Weapons, weapon kits, weapon conversion devices, ammunition
Counterfeit currency or financial instruments
Stolen credentials, leaked databases, doxxing material
Anything illegal in the seller's jurisdiction or the buyer's jurisdiction

3.7 Personal data and credentials

Email lists, phone-number lists, customer databases sourced from leaks or scraping
"Verified accounts" of any kind (banking, identity, social, email, gaming)
KYC bypass services, ID-verification farming, fake-document services
SIM-swap services, OSINT-as-a-service marketed for harassment

3.8 Scammy framings

"DM me for details" listings with no product page
Listings that promise outcomes the product cannot deliver ("make $10k in a week")
Mystery boxes with no described contents
"Reseller rights to this listing" listings that recursively sell the right to sell the listing

4. Prohibited seller behaviors

Regardless of category, the following behaviors will result in enforcement action:

4.1 Misrepresentation

False, misleading, or substantially incomplete product descriptions
Stolen product images or marketing copy used without rights
Inflated, fake, or paid-for reviews
Manipulating buyer feedback, deleting legitimate negative reviews, retaliatory action against buyers who leave honest feedback
Misrepresenting your geographic location, business identity, or seller history

4.2 Refund and dispute abuse

Refusing to honor your own published refund policy
Refusing to respond to buyer messages about delivery problems
Issuing replacement keys you know are invalid or already used
Operating with a chargeback rate that endangers the platform's PSP relationships (we reserve the right to suspend any seller above a 1.5% rolling chargeback rate)
Threatening or harassing buyers who file disputes

4.3 Tax and legal evasion

Failing to collect VAT, GST, or sales tax where applicable in your jurisdiction
Operating in a sanctioned jurisdiction or selling to sanctioned individuals
Using anyshop.io to circumvent platform terms you've been banned from elsewhere

4.4 Account abuse

Operating multiple accounts to evade a suspension or chargeback rate
Selling, transferring, or buying anyshop.io accounts
Using buyer customer data for marketing unrelated to the product they purchased
Reselling buyer customer data to third parties

4.5 Infrastructure abuse

Using anyshop.io's API or webhooks to launch attacks against third parties
Using our checkout embed to harvest payment information for use outside our platform
Bypassing our anti-fraud systems

5. Seller compliance obligations

If you operate a store on anyshop.io, you commit to the following:

Publish a refund policy. Mandatory at onboarding. You may set any policy that's lawful in your jurisdiction — including "all sales final" — but it must be published, visible on every product page, and honored.
Respond to customer messages within the SLA you publish. If you don't publish one, the default is 72 hours.
Respond to payment disputes (Stripe / PayPal chargebacks) within the PSP's evidence window. Failure to respond counts as conceding the dispute.
Comply with tax law in your jurisdiction. anyshop.io provides Stripe Tax integration for EU VAT calculation; the obligation to collect and remit is yours.
Provide accurate seller information. Business name, country, support contact must be truthful.
Hold the rights to everything you sell. If you're not the author, you must have a redistribution license, and we may ask to see it.

6. Enforcement

We use a three-stage enforcement model. Stages are not strictly sequential — severe violations skip directly to suspension or termination.

Stage 1 — Warning

We notify you in writing, identify the violating listing or behavior, and give you 7 days to remedy it. The store stays online; no orders are blocked. We log the warning on your audit trail.

Common stage-1 triggers: misleading description, missing refund policy, slow customer response times, single AUP-borderline listing.

Stage 2 — Suspension

Your storefront is taken offline. New orders cannot be placed. Existing paid orders continue to fulfill automatically so buyers get what they paid for. You retain dashboard access to respond to support and pursue an appeal.

Common stage-2 triggers: ignored stage-1 warning, repeated listing of prohibited categories, chargeback rate above 1.5% trailing 30 days, customer-data misuse.

Suspension lasts up to 30 days while we review or you appeal. If unresolved, we escalate.

Stage 3 — Termination

Account closed. Subscription terminated. Storefront permanently offline.

You retain 90 days of full data export access after termination — orders, customers, license-key history, audit log. After 90 days, we delete your data per our Terms of Service.

Common stage-3 triggers: illegal content, malware listings, account-abuse, repeated suspensions, severe single violation (CSAM, etc. — immediate termination without stages).

What we will not do

Silently ban sellers without notice
Withhold subscription fees already paid (refunded pro-rata on termination)
Withhold seller data after termination beyond the legal minimum
Modify our AUP retroactively to justify an action already taken

Note: anyshop.io is not a merchant of record. We never hold seller funds. Payouts on a suspended or terminated seller's existing orders continue to flow through the seller's own PSP (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) per the PSP's own terms — we cannot freeze your money because we never had it.

7. Appeals

Every enforcement action can be appealed.

File an appeal in writing through the Appeals tab in your dashboard within 30 days of the action.
A human reviews it. Not a bot, not an automated triage. We commit to having a real person read every appeal.
Decision within 14 days. We respond in writing with the outcome and the reasoning.
Final appeal to the founder for novel or high-stakes cases. Decisions at this level are documented and may inform future AUP revisions.

We track every appeal in our internal audit log. Quarterly, we publish aggregate appeal statistics (total appeals, approval rate, average resolution time) as part of our transparency report.

8. Reporting violations

If you're a buyer, a seller, a platform we integrate with, or anyone else, you can report a suspected AUP violation:

In-product: the "Report" button on any storefront and product page
By email: abuse@anyshop.io
Anonymously: anyshop.io/report — no account required

We commit to reviewing every report within 5 business days. We do not retaliate against good-faith reporters. We do not disclose the identity of a reporter to the seller they reported.

9. Changes to this policy

We may revise this AUP. When we do:

We publish the new version and announce it via email to all sellers and in the dashboard with 30 days notice before it takes effect (except for changes legally required to take effect sooner).
We maintain a public changelog at anyshop.io/aup/changelog.
We never apply a revised AUP retroactively to terminate a seller for conduct that was permitted under the prior version.

10. Contact

Policy questions: policy@anyshop.io
Abuse reports: abuse@anyshop.io
Appeals: through your dashboard, or appeals@anyshop.io
Press / legal: legal@anyshop.io

Appendix A — Why these specific bans

This appendix is not part of the binding AUP. It explains our reasoning so sellers and PSP underwriters can see we made these choices deliberately.

Steam keys (permitted with rights). This is a deliberate, eyes-open choice. Steam-key resale is a high-risk PSP category. We accept the risk for V0 because the legitimate seller base in this category is large and important to compete for, but we mitigate by (a) requiring provable rights, (b) banning region-locked keys, which are the bulk of the gray market, (c) banning game accounts, which carry roughly 5× the chargeback rate of legitimate keys, and (d) enforcing the platform-wide 1.5% chargeback cap from §4.2. Every seller in this category is one step closer to suspension than a seller of original software, and our underwriting reflects that.

Region-locked keys (banned). The cleanest single line we can draw in this category. Publisher-issued region-locked stock exists for genuine reasons (regional pricing, language editions), and it is genuinely cheaper to buy from those regions. But the chargeback rate on a seller who imports cheap region-locked stock and resells to Western buyers is multiples higher than on a seller dealing in worldwide keys. Banning region-locked specifically lets us welcome legitimate Steam-key sellers without hosting the worst of the gray-market economy.

Game accounts. Violates every major game publisher's ToS. Chargeback rate in this category is the highest in the digital-goods market — typically 5× the rate of legitimate keys. PSPs flag account-sale platforms instantly. Not viable on the main platform.

Trading signals (permitted with disclosure). We initially considered restricting this to licensed financial advisors. That position is correct for regulated jurisdictions but excludes the large legitimate market of trading communities, signal providers, and analysis subscriptions that operate openly across the industry. The dividing line for us is "guaranteed return" claims: a seller offering "5 trade ideas a week, here's my track record, past results don't guarantee future" is a legitimate education business; a seller offering "make $10,000 a month guaranteed or money back" is a fraud risk. We police the marketing language, not the seller's credentials.

Social media engagement. Violates the ToS of every major platform. Buyers frequently report fraud because purchased engagement gets stripped within days. High chargeback rate. PSP-poisonous.

Adult content. Most card networks (Visa, Mastercard) require special acquirer relationships and higher reserves for adult-content merchants. Mixing adult with mainstream digital goods on the same platform poisons the mainstream relationship.

Gambling / financial schemes. Heavily regulated; varies by jurisdiction. Selling a "betting tip subscription" might be legal in one country and a financial-services-regulator offense in another. We would have to do per-country geofencing per seller — not viable at V0.

Cheats and hostile software. Beyond ToS violations, hosting these creates direct legal exposure (CFAA in the US, Computer Misuse Act in the UK, similar elsewhere). Some categories (RATs, infostealers) are criminal in most jurisdictions.

Future revision triggers. We will revisit this list if (a) a PSP we work with explicitly approves a currently-banned category, (b) a regulatory regime in our primary markets changes meaningfully, or (c) we activate the V2 walled-off high-risk tier (separate KYC, separate AUP, separate PSP — see SPEC.md §7).