Last Update: March 17, 2023

You are independently responsible for complying with all applicable laws in all of your actions related to your use of AO Pay’s services, regardless of the purpose of the use. In addition, you must adhere to the terms of this Acceptable Use Policy. Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a violation of your AO Pay User Agreement and may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of R25000.00 per violation, which may be debited directly from your AO Pay account(s) as outlined in the User Agreement (see “Restricted Activities, Holds & Liquidated Damages” section of the AO Pay User Agreement).

Prohibited Activities

You may not use the AO Pay service for activities that:

  1. violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation.
  2. 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.
  3. relate to transactions that (a) show the personal information of third parties in violation of applicable law, (b) support pyramid or ponzi schemes, matrix programs, other “get rich quick” schemes or certain multi-level marketing programs, (c) are associated with purchases of annuities or lottery contracts, lay-away systems, off-shore banking or transactions to finance or refinance debts funded by a credit card, (d) are for the sale of certain items before the seller has control or possession of the item, (e) are by payment processors to collect payments on behalf of merchants, (f) are associated with the sale of traveller’s checks or money orders, (g)involve currency exchanges or check cashing businesses, (h) involve certain credit repair, debt settlement services, credit transactions or insurance activities, or (i) involve offering or receiving payments for the purpose of bribery or corruption.
  4. involve the sales of products or services identified by government agencies to have a high likelihood of being fraudulent.
  5. relate to transactions involving any activity that requires pre-approval without having obtained said approval.

Activities Requiring Approval

AO Pay requires pre-approval to accept payments for certain services as detailed in below.

  1. Transportation: Airlines and scheduled or non-scheduled charters/jets/air taxi operators.
  2. Charities / Non-Profit: Collecting donations as a charity or non-profit organization.
  3. High Value Items: Operating as a dealer in jewels, precious metals and stones.
  4. Payment Facilitator: Providing payment services which would fall under the definition of a money service business or an electronic money institution. Services would also include the sale of stored value cards and escrow services.
  5. Investments: Buying, selling, or brokering stocks, bonds, securities, options, figures, commodities, contracts for difference/forex, mutual funds or an investment interest any entity or property.
  6. Gambling, Gaming, Prize Draws and Contests: Activities involving gambling, gaming and/or any other activity with an entry fee and a prize, including, but not limited to property/real estate prizes, casino games, sports betting, horse or greyhound racing, fantasy sports, lottery tickets, other ventures that facilitate gambling, games of skill (whether or not legally defined as gambling) and sweepstakes, if the operator and customers are located exclusively in jurisdictions where such activities are permitted by law.
  7. Cryptocurrency: Any digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, transferred, or used for payment, including, but not limited to, crypto currencies, virtual in-game currencies, or non-fungible tokens.
  8. Prescription Items: The sale of any product(s) requiring a prescription or prescription dispensing services.
  9. Telemedicine Services: Providing medical services and consultations in a remote fashion.
  10. Mature Audience Content: Any adult content delivered digitally including video on demand (VOD) and web-cam activities. AO Pay may be restricted from processing payments in certain jurisdictions for adult DVD’s, magazines and other adult themed products or services.
  11. Online Dating: Any dating services that enables individuals to find and introduce themselves to new people with the goal of developing a personal or romantic relationship.
  12. Live Streaming/Broadcasting: Any activities in which people transmit video, voice or text content in a live environment with the potential of user interaction.
  13. File-Sharing: Providing file sharing services including cyberlockers and similar remote digital file sharing services where uploaded content is accessible to the public or the service pays uploaders for content.
  14. Alcohol: Selling alcoholic beverages.
  15. Tobacco: Non-cigarette tobacco products, e-cigarettes, cigars
  16. Medical Items or Services: All items classified as medical devices, and all services or treatment provided by a person or organization holding itself out as a provider of health-care services, including, but not limited to, all health-care services for which government licensure is required in the provider’s jurisdiction or in the jurisdiction where services are being provided.

This category includes “Medical Tourism” involving medical services to be provided to a patient outside of that patient’s home country.     

  1. Multilevel Marketing and Direct Selling Organizations: Direct Sales Organizations (“DSOs”) and the Multi-Level Marketing (“MLMs”) are distribution and marketing models in which products or services are sold via a network of independent distributors or representatives. DSO and MLM models rely on personal sales and frequently require the independent distributors to recruit new distributors in order to advance within the organization or gain incentive compensation.
  2. Marketplaces: A marketplace is an e-commerce solution where third-party sellers can sell their products or services to customers.

For general questions, please refer to our Support Team.

If you have questions about obtaining a pre-approval or opening a new AO Pay Business account that offers services requiring pre-approval, please contact our Sales team.

More Information

To learn more about the Acceptable Use Policy, please refer to our Support Team

Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy

We encourage you to report violations of this Acceptable Use Policy to AO Pay immediately. If you have a question about whether a type of transaction may violate the Acceptable Use Policy, or wish to file a report, you can do so by emailing [email protected]