Shopify Acceptable Use Policy

Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy is a list of products, services, and behaviors that are banned on the Shopify platform — things like selling counterfeit goods, certain weapons parts, explicit adult content, and operating financial scams. The most important thing for merchants is that Shopify can immediately suspend or terminate your store and withhold funds if they decide you've violated this policy, even if what you're selling is legal in your jurisdiction. If you sell in any regulated category — firearms accessories, supplements, adult content, financial products, or tobacco — review this policy carefully before opening a store, as your account could be shut down without warning.

Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) governs all use of Shopify's commerce platform and services, establishing contractual prohibitions on specific categories of merchant and user conduct as a condition of service access. The most significant obligations created are absolute prohibitions on selling enumerated product and service categories — including firearms components, certain regulated substances, counterfeit goods, sexually explicit content involving minors, and unlicensed financial services — with Shopify reserving unilateral, discretionary authority to suspend or terminate accounts for violations without prior notice. A notable deviation from industry standard is Shopify's explicit restriction on certain legal-but-regulated products (e.g., certain firearms accessories, payday loans, multi-level marketing schemes, and pseudo-pharmaceuticals), which extends platform liability management well beyond baseline legal requirements into commercial policy that restricts lawful merchant activity. The AUP engages the FTC Act Section 5 (unfair or deceptive practices), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and FinCEN regulations for payment and money services, OFAC sanctions compliance, the Arms Export Control Act (ITAR) for weapons-adjacent products, and COPPA for age-restricted content; material compliance considerations include that merchants operating in restricted verticals bear the primary burden of determining legality across jurisdictions, and Shopify's unilateral enforcement discretion creates significant business continuity risk for merchants in gray-area categories.