If you break Craigslist's rules — or help someone else do so — you agree to pay specific dollar amounts per violation, ranging from $1 for data harvesting to $3,000 per day for unauthorized content aggregation, and these amounts stack on top of any other legal remedies Craigslist pursues.
This analysis describes what Craigslist's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The damages schedule is unusually specific and covers a wide range of common behaviors including viewing more than 1,000 pages in a day, sending unsolicited messages, or posting prohibited content, meaning ordinary users and businesses can incur significant financial liability for actions they may not recognize as violations.
Interpretive note: Whether California courts will treat all enumerated amounts as enforceable liquidated damages rather than unenforceable penalties is a legal question that depends on the facts of each violation and has not been uniformly resolved.
Users who exceed 1,000 page views in a day, send unsolicited communications, or post prohibited content may owe specific per-violation dollar amounts under these terms, with the $3,000-per-day rate for content aggregation posing the most significant financial exposure for developers or businesses that interact with the site programmatically.
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TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, OUR LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS (FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION), WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO A MAXIMUM OF FIFTY US DO...
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Kit shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting ...
We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any Personal Information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technolo...
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"You further agree that if you violate the TOU, or you encourage, support, benefit from, or induce others to do so, you will be jointly and severally liable to us for liquidated damages as follows for: (A) collecting/harvesting CL users' information, including personal or identifying information - $1 per violation; (B) publishing/misusing personal or identifying information of a third party in connection with your use of CL without that party's express written consent - $1,000 per violation; (C) misrepresenting your identity or affiliation to anyone in connection with your use of CL - $1,000 per violation; (D) posting or attempting to post Prohibited Content - $4 per violation; ... (K) aggregating, displaying, framing, copying, duplicating, reproducing, making derivative works from, distributing, licensing, selling, or exploiting CL content for any purpose without our express written consent - $3,000 for each day you engage in such violations; (L) requesting, viewing, or accessing more than 1,000 pages of CL in any 24-hour period - $0.25 per page during the 24 hour period after the first 1,000 pages; (M) bypassing or attempting to bypass our moderation efforts - $4 per violation. You agree that these amounts are (1) a reasonable estimate of our damages (as actual damages are often difficult to calculate), (2) not a penalty, and (3) not otherwise limiting on our ability to recover under any legal theory or claim.— Excerpt from Craigslist's Craigslist Terms of Use
(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: The liquidated damages clause engages California contract law on the enforceability of liquidated damages provisions, specifically whether each enumerated amount represents a reasonable pre-estimate of harm or an unenforceable penalty under California Civil Code Section 1671. The document asserts these are not penalties, but courts may independently assess that characterization. The anti-spam provisions (categories F and G) explicitly reference the federal CAN-SPAM Act and related statutes as alternative damages bases, confirming federal anti-spam law as a relevant framework. The CFAA may also be engaged by the page-view and scraping provisions. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High for businesses or developers that interact with Craigslist at scale. The $3,000-per-day rate for content aggregation and the per-page charge above 1,000 daily views can accumulate rapidly. The joint and several liability extension to parties who encourage, support, or benefit from violations is particularly broad and could implicate managers or employers whose staff engage in scraping or bulk access. Whether all enumerated amounts would be upheld as non-punitive liquidated damages is a live legal question that has not been universally resolved in the company's favor in all jurisdictions. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: California courts apply a two-part test for liquidated damages enforceability: whether actual damages were difficult to estimate at contract formation and whether the amount is a reasonable forecast of compensatory damages. Some per-violation amounts (e.g., $1 for harvesting a single user record) may face scrutiny on reasonableness grounds. EU users may have additional consumer protection arguments under their national laws. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Enterprises whose employees or contractors access Craigslist in connection with recruitment, real estate, or market research should assess whether their access patterns could trigger page-view or scraping thresholds. The provision asserting liability for parties acting for your benefit creates indirect employer liability risk that procurement and legal teams should flag in vendor and contractor agreements. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should map all automated or high-volume access to Craigslist against the enumerated violation categories. The provision that these liquidated damages do not limit Craigslist's ability to seek statutory damages or other relief means the financial ceiling is not fixed by this schedule. Organizations using Craigslist data in any product or research context should obtain written authorization from Craigslist, as the clause explicitly requires express written consent for aggregation.
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The damages schedule is unusually specific and covers a wide range of common behaviors including viewing more than 1,000 pages in a day, sending unsolicited messages, or posting prohibited content, meaning ordinary users and businesses can incur significant financial liability for actions they may not recognize as violations.
Users who exceed 1,000 page views in a day, send unsolicited communications, or post prohibited content may owe specific per-violation dollar amounts under these terms, with the $3,000-per-day rate for content aggregation posing the most significant financial exposure for developers or businesses that interact with the site programmatically.
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