📦 WhatsApp Commerce Policy

On this page, you learn about WhatsApp's Commerce Policy, including an example list of prohibited products.

The Commerce Policy governs what products and service businesses can sell using WhatsApp Business. If you do any of the following to sell your products and services, you must comply with the policies and prohibitions listed below:

• Use product and services catalog
• Use payment features
• Provide any commerce experiences (such as promotional messages)

If you do not comply with the policies, WhatsApp may prohibit you from using some or all of the WhatsApp Business products.

If you sell prohibited products along with permitted products, you may use WhatsApp Business for the permitted products only. If a customer initiates a conversation about purchasing your prohibited good or service, you must ask them to connect with you on a different channel for those conversations. For example, alcohol is a prohibited product under the Commerce Policy, but if you sell alcohol along with wine glasses and bottle holders, you may use WhatsApp Business for messaging and its catalog and payment features for bottle holders and wine glasses only. You may not use them for alcohol.

You are solely responsible for your transactions and for providing any sales terms, privacy terms or other terms applicable to your interactions with users.

WhatsApp is not responsible for processing, paying for, or fulfilling any sales relating to your transactions.

You are solely responsible for determining, collecting, withholding, reporting, and remitting all applicable taxes, duties, fees and additional charges for sales relating to your transactions.

Below is the list of prohibited products and services under the Commerce Policy. The examples are representative and not exhaustive:

Illegal products or services #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the operations or exchange of illegal products or services.

Drugs, whether prescription, recreational or otherwise #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs. Manufacturers and healthcare services who do not engage in direct sale are allowed.
• Examples:
  • Drugs, including marijuana and marijuana products
  • Drug paraphernalia, including pipes and bongs
  • Prescription drugs

Tobacco items and related paraphernalia #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of tobacco products or tobacco paraphernalia.
• Examples:
  • Apparel featuring a tobacco brand logo
  • Cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco
  • Tobacco pipes and paraphernalia
  • Tobacco rolling machines
  • Hookahs
  • Bongs
  • Rolling papers
  • Electronic cigarettes (E-cigarettes) or tobacco devices

Alcohol #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of alcohol.
• Examples:
  • Books or DVDs about alcohol
  • Alcohol-related items, including glasses, coolers, and wine bottle holders
  • Alcoholic beverages
  • Kits for producing alcohol

Unsafe ingestible supplements #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of unsafe ingestible supplements, as determined by WhatsApp in its sole discretion.
• Examples:
  • Anabolic steroids
  • Chitosan
  • Comfrey
  • Dehydroepiandrosterone
  • Ephedra
  • Human growth hormones

Weapons, ammunition, or explosives #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale or use of weapons, ammunition, or explosives.
• Examples:
  • Promoting safety training or licenses for legal weapons
  • Firearms and firearm parts
  • Paintball guns
  • BB Guns
  • Fireworks
  • Pepper spray
  • Tasers
  • Gun ranges
  • Gun shows

Animals #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of any animals.
• Examples:
  • Animal cages
  • Products for animals (toys, collars, etc.)
  • Veterinary services
  • Grooming services
  • Boarding services
  • Pet adoption services
  • Live animals
  • Livestock
  • Prohibited animal parts, including but not limited to bone, teeth, horn, ivory, taxidermy, organs, external limbs, secretions, or carcasses
  • Any product or part, including but not limited to leather, skin, hide, fur, wool, or hair from any dogs, cats, and endangered or threatened animals

Adult products or services #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale or use of adult products or services.
• Examples:
  • Products promoting family planning and contraception, which focus on the contraceptive features of the product, and not on sexual pleasure or sexual enhancement
  • Sex toys
  • Videos or live shows for adult entertainment
  • Sexual enhancement products
  • Sexually suggestive services

Body parts and fluids #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of human body parts or fluids.
• Examples:
  • Blood donation centers
  • Blood
  • Hair extensions and wigs
  • Urine
  • Body parts
  • Organs
  • Human tissue
  • Teeth

Medical and healthcare products #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in certain healthcare products, including medical devices, and smoking cessation products containing nicotine. Manufacturers and healthcare services who do not engage in direct sale are allowed.
• Medical Devices - Examples:
  • Lifestyle and fitness accessories
  • Contact lenses
  • Bandages and braces for physical injuries
  • Thermometers
  • Testing kits for medical conditions or diseases
  • Breast pumps
  • First-aid kits
• Smoking Cessation Products - Examples:
  • Nicotine patches
  • Nicotine gum

Items or products with overtly sexualized positioning #

• Policy: Businesses may not position products or services in a sexually suggestive manner.
• Examples:
  • Implied nudity
  • Implied sexual acts
  • Zoomed-in sexual images

Real money gambling services #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in or facilitate gambling, games of skill, or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo, or poker if it costs money.

Dating services #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in or facilitate online dating services.

Products or items that facilitate or encourage unauthorized access to digital media #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of devices that facilitate or encourage streaming digital content in an unauthorized manner or interfering with the functionality of electronic devices.
• Examples:
  • Add-on equipment for streaming devices such as keyboards and remotes
  • Sale of streaming devices loaded with software that facilitates unauthorized access to content
  • Jailbroken or loaded devices
  • Jamming or descrambling devices
  • Wiretapping devices

Digital and subscription services, including links to or processing of any subscription sales, renewals, or upgrades #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale, including renewals and upgrades, etc., of digital content, digital subscriptions, or digital accounts.
• Examples:
  • Authentic audio or video CDs, DVDs, and Blu Ray
  • Digital devices, including Smartphones, video game consoles, and TVs
  • Downloadable content, including PDFs, music, games, movies, etc.
  • Digital accounts, including games accounts
  • Digital subscriptions and internet streaming services, including TV, Mobile, etc.
  • Digital coupons

Business models, goods, items, or services that we determine may be or are fraudulent, misleading, offensive, or deceptive, or may be or are exploitative, inappropriate, or exert undue pressure on targeted groups #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in deceptive, false, misleading, or offensive offers or products.
• Examples:
  • Multilevel marketing
  • Penny auctions
  • ICOs and binary options
  • Payday loans, paycheck advances, P2P lending, debt collection, and bail bonds
  • Diet, weight loss, or other health-related products that imply or attempt to generate negative self-perception

Real, virtual, or fake currency #

• Policy: Businesses may not transact in the sale of real, virtual, or fake currency.
• Examples:
  • Real money (cash or cash equivalent instruments and coins)
  • Replica or prop money
  • Digital or cryptocurrency
  • Active bank credit or debit cards
  • Store credit cards or coupons
  • Pre-paid credit or debit cards
  • Checks or checkbooks
  • Equipment to create counterfeit currency or financial instruments

Third-Party Infringement #

• Policy: Transactions may not contain content that infringes upon or violates the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright or trademark. This includes, but is not limited to, the sale of counterfeit products, such as goods that copy the trademark (name or logo) and/or distinctive features of another company’s products to imitate a genuine product.
• Examples:
  • Counterfeits, knockoffs, or replicas of branded goods, or posts offering goods that are likely to confuse consumers about the source, sponsorship or affiliation of those goods.
  • Unauthorized or pirated copies of copyrighted works, such as videos, movies, TV shows and broadcasts, video games, CDs or other musical works, books, etc.