Prohibited Activities
The processing of the following activities, products and services is prohibited in accordance with Mercado Pago's Policies or by applicable law:
- Businesses that promote violence or discrimination of any kind.
- Any type of activity or transaction that may be considered fraudulent or illegal or suspected of being fraudulent or illegal.
- Any type of transaction that violates local, national or international laws.
- Financing of weapons of mass destruction.
- Paedophilia or promotion of sex involving minors, minors nudity, minors pornography, real or simulated.
- Illegally taken films or photographs of minors under the age of 18 or without the authorisation of the minor's legal representative.
- Piracy.
- Pornography.
- Misleading commercial practices.
- Terrorism and money laundering.
- All establishments/persons found at www.treasury.gov./offices/enforcement/ofac/sanctions/terrorism.html.
- Traffic of human beings, animals or weapons.
- Sale of weapons.
- Sale of drugs (including designer drugs).
- Drug paraphernalia.
- Sale of counterfeit goods.
- Illegal sale of medicines or food supplements.
Sale or infringement of intellectual property rights.
Zoophilia.
Entertainment
- Fortune tellers, psychics.
- Adult entertainment (including, adult telephone chat, nudist or semi-nudist bars, pornographic oriented bookshops, massage agencies, dating services, modelling agencies, bestiality).
- Esotericism and horoscopes.
- Establishments for sexual encounters.
- Gambling, casinos, gaming and betting shops (whether conducted online or in person); including Casino Chips, Bookmakers, State and
- National Government Lotteries, Bingo, Internet Gambling and Casino websites.
- Escort services.
Financial Services
- Bankruptcy lawyers.
- Cash advances or loans.
- Collection agencies, debt refinancing.
- Credit bureau, consumer credit bureau.
- Commercial telephone service providers who receive calls from cardholders.
- Telemarketing merchants who take calls from cardholders.
- Factoring companies, liquidators, bailiffs, bail bond agents, or credit payment, bankruptcy services; credit recovery services.
- Debt settlement companies; repayment of overdue debt; third party companies that process payments from debt settlement companies or collection companies.
- Bank money orders.
- Primary Money Services Business.
- Virtual currency trading.
- Futures, derivatives or financial trading.
- Payment orders, non-financial institutions (non-wireless), currency exchanges (including cross-border currency), exchange bureau, check cashing/guarantee, acquisition of travellers' checks, acquisition of shares or stocks, securities, options, and any other investments, including contributions to investment funds; investment in trust funds.
- Bail payments.
- Lenders, including payroll lenders and motor title lenders.
- Production or distribution of cryptocurrencies.
- Payment Service Providers or Payment Facilitators.
- Credit restructuring or loan modifications.
- Credit restoration.
- Forward-looking services.
- Financial advisory services.
- In-person electronic transfers.
Travel and transportation
- Airlines and air transport companies (including charter airlines).
- Car Rental Agencies.
- Travel Agencies.
- Accommodation: hotels, motels, resorts (including ‘branded’ central reservation services).
- Steamships and Cruise Lines (including on-board cruise shops).
- Discount travel clubs.
- Direct Marketing - related to travel management services.
- Payment for sexual, prostitution or related services, no matter how are provided (including potentially sexual services).
Sale of timeshare units.
Sale of products or services
- Contraband cigarettes.
- Electronic cigarettes.
- Wholesale clubs, pyramid or multi-level sales.
- Evasion devices / modification of game consoles.
- Ephedrine, Ephedra or any extract thereof.
- Non-face-to-face pharmacies.
- HCG weight loss diet.
- Direct marketing such as infomercial payees, outbound telemarketing.
- Indirect acceptance models.
- Operation from a P.O. Box number or accepting orders by answering machine.
- Non-face-to-face tobacco products.
- Crime reconstruction.
- Protective services.
- Penny auctions.
- Telemedicine.
- For-profit adoption agencies.
- Donations, including donations to political parties.