Acceptable Use Policy

1. Overview

Strawlo is a software-as-a-service platform that enables individuals and businesses ("Merchants") to create and operate their own online stores. This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") sets out the activities, content, products, and services that are prohibited on Strawlo. It applies to everyone who uses Strawlo, including Merchants, the customers who buy from those stores, and any visitor to the platform.

This AUP supplements, and forms part of, our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Capitalised terms not defined here have the meaning given to them in the Terms of Service. If there is any conflict between this AUP and the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service prevail.

We may update this AUP from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email or through an in-product notice. Your continued use of Strawlo after the changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated AUP.

2. General Principles

When using Strawlo, you agree to:

• Comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including the laws of the Republic of Ghana and any other jurisdiction you operate in or sell to;
• Provide accurate, current, and complete information about yourself, your business, and the goods or services you sell;
• Honour your obligations to your customers, including delivering products and services as described, in a reasonable timeframe;
• Comply with the acceptable-use rules of any third-party services connected to your store, including Paystack, where applicable;
• Respect the rights of others, including their intellectual property, privacy, and personal data.

3. Prohibited Products and Services

You may not use Strawlo to list, offer for sale, sell, advertise, or facilitate the sale of any of the following. This list is not exhaustive — we may prohibit additional categories at our sole discretion, particularly where required by our payment providers or by law.

Illegal or Restricted Goods

• Goods or services that are illegal under the laws of Ghana or the jurisdiction of the buyer or seller;
• Stolen, smuggled, or otherwise unlawfully obtained property;
• Counterfeit goods, replicas, or items that infringe a third party's trademark, copyright, patent, or other intellectual property right;
• Goods subject to a recall, embargo, or trade sanction.

Regulated and Controlled Items

• Narcotics, controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, and any product marketed as a substitute for an illegal drug;
• Prescription pharmaceuticals, prescription-only medical devices, and unregistered or unapproved medicines and supplements;
• Firearms, ammunition, explosives, weapons, and any accessory designed to convert a legal weapon into an illegal one;
• Tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaping products, and shisha products where prohibited or sold without the required licence;
• Alcoholic beverages sold without the required licence or sold to minors;
• Gambling, lotteries, sports-betting, casino-style games, and games of chance, except where the operator holds a valid licence in every jurisdiction where the service is offered;
• Cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and crypto-related products or services, except where expressly permitted by us in writing;
• Investment products, securities, and any financial service that requires a licence the seller does not hold.

Harmful or Offensive Content

• Pornographic, sexually explicit, or adult content or services, including escort services;
• Any content that sexualises minors or depicts child sexual abuse material — we will report such content to law enforcement;
• Content that promotes, glorifies, or incites violence, terrorism, hate, discrimination, or harm against any individual or group;
• Content depicting real-world cruelty to animals or humans;
• Goods or services that promote self-harm, suicide, or eating disorders.

Deceptive, Misleading, or Predatory Offerings

• "Get rich quick" schemes, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, and chain-letter or matrix programmes;
• Products that make unsubstantiated medical, health, or weight-loss claims, including "miracle cures";
• Fake testimonials, fake reviews, and other manipulated social proof;
• Misleading or false advertising, including bait-and-switch pricing and hidden charges at checkout;
• Products or services designed to defraud, mislead, or unfairly exploit consumers.

Data, Personal Information, and Surveillance

• The sale, rental, or trade of personal data, contact lists, identity documents, or login credentials;
• Stalkerware, spyware, and any tool designed to surveil a person without their knowledge or consent;
• Services that enable mass-scraping, doxxing, harassment, or impersonation.

4. Prohibited Conduct

In addition to the prohibited products and services above, you may not:

• Use Strawlo to engage in fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, or sanctions evasion, or in breach of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044) or the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2008 (Act 762);
• Engage in transaction laundering or factoring — that is, accepting payments on Strawlo on behalf of a business, person, or activity that is not the registered Merchant of the store;
• Process payments for goods or services that were not sold through your Strawlo store, or that were sold through a different merchant account;
• Aggregate, combine, or pool transactions across multiple businesses through a single Strawlo store;
• Deliberately cause, induce, or facilitate chargebacks or payment disputes, including misrepresenting refund policies;
• Impersonate another person, business, or brand, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or business;
• Provide false information during sign-up, identity verification, or settlement-account configuration;
• Interfere with, disable, or attempt to circumvent any security or anti-fraud measure used by Strawlo, our payment providers, or our service providers;
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Strawlo platform, including other users' accounts, stores, or data;
• Distribute viruses, malware, ransomware, or any malicious code through your store, communications, or any feature of the platform;
• Use bots, scrapers, or other automated means to access, copy, or interfere with the platform other than through interfaces we publicly document;
• Send unsolicited bulk messages, spam, or any communication that breaches applicable electronic-communications laws;
• Collect, store, or process personal data of your customers in a way that breaches the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) or any other applicable privacy or data-protection law;
• Use Strawlo in any way that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the platform or interfere with any other party's use of it.

5. Payment-Provider Compliance

Where you accept online payments through your Strawlo store, you are also bound by the terms and acceptable-use rules of our payment providers, including Paystack. You are responsible for:

• Reading and complying with Paystack's Terms of Service and any acceptable-use or prohibited-business policy published by Paystack;
• Completing all "Know Your Customer" (KYC) and identity-verification steps requested by Paystack before payments are enabled;
• Maintaining accurate settlement details (bank account or mobile-money account) in your own name or the name of your registered business;
• Responding to chargebacks and customer disputes that arise on your store, and providing any documentation Paystack requests in connection with them;
• Authorising refunds to your customers where required by law, by your own published refund policy, or by a chargeback ruling. Under the Paystack subaccount model used in Ghana, you do not have direct access to a Paystack dashboard. Refunds are processed by Strawlo on Paystack's API at your request, and the refunded amount is debited from your next settlement. See Section 6 below.

A breach of Paystack's rules is also a breach of this AUP. We may disable your store's payment routing, suspend your Paystack subaccount through Paystack, or terminate your Strawlo account in response to a Paystack instruction or to a breach we identify ourselves.

6. Customer Disputes and Refunds

Because each Merchant operates an independent store and receives customer payments directly into their own settlement account, the contract for the sale of goods or services is between the Merchant and the customer. Merchants are responsible for:

• Publishing a clear refund, return, and cancellation policy on their store;
• Responding to customer enquiries and complaints in a timely manner;
• Authorising refunds in accordance with their published policy and applicable Ghanaian law, including the consumer-protection provisions in Part V of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772) and the Sale of Goods Act, 1962 (Act 137);
• Cooperating with Strawlo and with Paystack in resolving any dispute or chargeback.

How refunds are processed. Under the Paystack subaccount model used in Ghana, Merchants do not have a Paystack dashboard. Strawlo is the parent Paystack account holder and initiates transactions and refunds through Paystack's API. To refund a customer, the Merchant raises a refund request with Strawlo (currently through our support channel at support@strawlo.com, with a self-serve refund tool on our roadmap). Strawlo verifies the order and processes the refund through Paystack's refund API against the original transaction reference. Paystack debits the refund from the Merchant's next settlement to their bank or mobile-money account, and reimburses the customer to the original payment method.

Strawlo may mediate disputes that involve suspected fraud, breach of this AUP, or misuse of the platform. Where we determine that a Merchant has breached this AUP, we may, at our discretion, suspend the store, disable payment routing, reverse payouts where permitted, or report the matter to Paystack and to law-enforcement authorities.

7. Reporting Violations

If you believe a Strawlo store, product, or user is breaching this AUP, our Terms of Service, or any law, please contact us at support@strawlo.com with as much detail as possible — including the store URL or username, screenshots, and a description of the issue. We investigate every report and act on credible reports promptly.

If you believe content on a Strawlo store infringes your intellectual property, please send a written notice to the same address that identifies the work concerned, the location of the infringing material, your contact details, and a statement that the use is not authorised.

8. Enforcement

We take breaches of this AUP seriously. Depending on the severity and nature of a breach, we may take one or more of the following actions, with or without prior notice:

• Issue a warning and require the offending content, product, or behaviour to be removed or stopped;
• Remove or restrict access to specific content or products;
• Suspend or disable payment routing for the store, preventing further customer payments from being processed;
• Suspend the store, hiding it from public access while we investigate;
• Terminate the account and all associated stores, and refuse to provide services to the operator in future;
• Withhold or reverse payouts where permitted by our agreement with Paystack and by applicable law;
• Report the breach to Paystack, to other affected parties, and to law-enforcement, regulatory, or tax authorities.

We reserve the right to determine, at our sole discretion, whether a breach has occurred and which action is appropriate. We are not liable for any loss arising from action taken in good faith under this AUP.

9. Governing Law

This AUP is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ghana, without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. The courts of Accra, Ghana have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from this AUP.

10. Contact

Questions about this Acceptable Use Policy can be sent to support@strawlo.com.