Glossary term
Prohibited Business List
A payment processor's published list of business categories it will not process payments for, such as piracy, counterfeit goods, or unlicensed regulated products.
A prohibited business list is a payment processor's published catalogue of business types and activities it refuses to process payments for. Every major processor maintains one — Stripe publishes its restricted businesses under section 6.3, PayPal maintains its Acceptable Use Policy, and Adyen, Braintree, and Square each publish their own.
Common prohibited categories across processors include intellectual property infringement (pirated streams, counterfeit goods), certain adult content, unlicensed regulated substances, weapons, unlicensed gambling, multi-level marketing schemes, and unlicensed money transmission. The specific lines differ between processors, which is why mapping a creator against the specific processor a platform uses matters more than applying generic risk rules.
For a platform, the operational challenge is that these lists apply not just to the platform's own business but to every creator it pays out. A creator operating in a prohibited category exposes the platform to enforcement even if the platform never intended to support that activity.
This definition is provided for general educational purposes and is not legal or compliance advice. Consult each processor's official policy documentation for definitive requirements.
Related terms
Stripe Restricted Businesses (§6.3)
The section of Stripe's terms that lists business categories Stripe restricts or prohibits, including piracy, counterfeit goods, and regulated products.
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
A processor or platform's policy defining permitted and prohibited uses of its service. PayPal's AUP is a common reference point in the creator economy.
Payout Compliance
Vetting which creators a platform is safe to pay, mapped against payment processor prohibited-business policies, before money moves.
Enforcement Cascade
The escalating sequence of processor consequences — from warning to fine, reserve increase, termination, and MATCH listing — that follows an unaddressed violation.