Compare acceptable use restrictions governance provisions between Stripe and PayPal. Provisions are extracted from monitored governance documents and classified by severity.
The provision establishes that acceptable use standards are defined by external, updatable documents rather than within the agreement itself, and grants Stripe unilateral authority to interpret and enforce compliance determinations. This structure allows Stripe to modify operational restrictions without amending the primary terms.
Consumer impact
Users must adhere to policies defined in referenced documents that Stripe controls and can modify unilaterally. The provision requires acceptance of policy updates through continued use of the Services, meaning users cannot retain service access under previously-stated policy terms if updates occur.
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Actual clause text
You may not use the Services to engage in activities that Stripe deems, in its sole discretion, to be harmful to Stripe, its financial partners, or third parties. You agree to comply with Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy (available at stripe.com/legal/aup) and the list of Prohibited and Restricted Businesses (available at stripe.com/restricted-businesses), each of which are incorporated by reference into this Agreement. Stripe may update these policies from time to time, and your continued use of the Services constitutes your acceptance of any such updates.
AI-extracted from source document. Verify against original for legal use.
This provision defines the categorical boundaries of permissible PayPal use and, under the AUP's enforcement clause, any transaction in these categories constitutes a violation of the PayPal User Agreement. The breadth of the prohibited list, particularly the inclusion of 'items that are considered obscene' and 'certain sexually oriented materials or services' without precise definitional thresholds, creates interpretive ambiguity for content-adjacent businesses.
Consumer impact
The agreement prohibits users from using PayPal for any of the listed transaction types; users whose business or personal transactions fall within these categories may face account-level enforcement under the User Agreement. The prohibition on 'items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy' applies across all jurisdictions.
Opt-out available
No opt-out available
Actual clause text
You may not use the PayPal service for activities that: violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation. relate to transactions involving (a) narcotics, steroids, certain controlled substances or other products that present a risk to consumer safety, (b) drug paraphernalia, (c) cigarettes, (d) items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity, (e) stolen goods including digital and virtual goods, (f) the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory or the financial exploitation of a crime, (g) items that are considered obscene, (h) items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction, (i) certain sexually oriented materials or services, (j) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories, or (k) certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law.
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Stripe's arbitration clause is narrower than Amazon's in one key respect: it includes a small claims court carve-out that Amazon's clause does not. PayPal's clause is the most aggressive of the three, explicitly waiving jury trial rights in addition to class action rights. From a compliance perspective, Amazon presents the lowest risk for B2B contracts while PayPal creates the highest exposure for consumer-facing applications subject to CFPB oversight.