Prohibited and Restricted Businesses Policy

Introduction

This Prohibited and Restricted Businesses Policy describes the types of businesses, people or activites that are not allowed completely as well as types of businesses or activities that require review by Schemon. These prohibitions and restrictions can be region specific or global. They are basically enforced due to compliance with law or certain requirements by financial institutions.

The lists here is examplary and is not exhaustive.

Definitions

Schemon, Inc. is referred in this document as “Schemon”. It also implies Schemon when “we”, “us”, and “ours” is written in this document.

Schemon provides certain services over the Internet. These services, which are called “services” in this document are:

• the Schemon website (https://www.schemon.com) (called the “website”),
• the Schemon blog (https://blog.schemon.com) (called the “blog”),
• the Schemon portal (https://portal.schemon.com) (called the “portal”),
• and any other service accessed over any Schemon subdomain.

The software that is used to access Schemon services is referred as the “navigator”. The navigator can be desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet or mobile based. It can also be any other type of tool that provides access to Schemon services.

The person accessing services via a navigator, you, is referred as the “visitor”. It is also implied when “you” and “your” is written in this document. You are a visitor if your access is limited with the website and blog. If you are accessing the portal by signing in, you are using the Schemon portal, referred as “user” in this document.

High Risk Jurisdictions and Persons

The following four categories are prohibited. Any business or person directly or indirectly related to these categories are not permited to use Schemon due to them being classified as high risk.

High-risk Jurisdictions

Persons located in, resident in, or a citizen of or products or services originating from the following jurisdictions are prohibited due to various reasons, including legal, contractual and commercial reasons:

• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria
• Ukraine: Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions only

High-Risk Persons

The folowing persons are prohibited due to various reasons, including legal, contractual and commercial reasons:

• restricted person or restriction party list of the US, United Kingdom, European Union or United Nations,
• restricted person or restriction party list of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control due to sanctions maintained,
• restricted person or restriction party list of the US Deparment of Commerce Denied Persons List or Denied Entity List

Prohibited Services

Export, reexport, sell, or supply accounting, trust and corporate formation, management consulting services, architecture services or engineering services to any person located in Russia. 

Prohibited Goods

Deal in any goods prohibited by law for export to or import from Russia.

Prohibited Businesses

The following illegal activities or businesses or product types are prohibited. The given list is representative of prohibited categories, this is not an exhaustive list.

Any Illegal Products and Services

• Illegal drugs, substances designed to mimic illegal drugs
• Equipment and items intended to be used for making or using drugs
• Fake references or ID-providing services
• Telecommunications manipulation equipment including jamming devices
• Businesses that engage in, encourage, promote or celebrate unlawful violence or physical harm to persons or property
• Businesses that engage in, encourage, promote or celebrate unlawful violence toward any group based on race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other immutable characteristic
• Any other products or services that are in violation of law in the jurisdictions where your business is located or targeted to

Adult Content and Services ‍

• Adult services, including prostitution, escorts, pay-per-view, sexual massages, fetish services, mail-order brides, and adult live chat features
• Adult video stores
• Gentleman's clubs, topless bars and strip clubs
• All online dating services
• Pornography and other mature audience content (including literature, imagery and other media) depicting nudity or explicit sexual acts
• Any artificial-intelligence-generated content that meets the above criteria

‍Finance or Related Services

The following financial or finance related services are prohibited:

• Debt settlement, debt negotiation, and debt consolidation
• Loan repayments with credit cards
• Credit monitoring, credit repair and counseling services
• Cryptocurrency mining and staking
• Initial coin offerings (ICOs)
• Secondary NFT sales

Gambling

• Games of chance including gambling, internet gambling, casino games, sweepstakes and contests and fantasy sports leagues with a monetary or material prize
• Games of skill including video game and mobile game tournaments or competitions, darts, card games and board games with a monetary or material prize
• Payments of an entry or player fee that promises the entrant or player will win a prize of value
• Sports forecasting or odds making with a monetary or material prize
• Lotteries
• Bidding fee auctions

Government Services

• Off‍fering products and services by or on behalf of embassies and consulates
• Offering government services without authorization or value add
• Offering government services with misleading claims
• Disbursement of government economic support, such as grants

Identity Services

• Identity theft protection services including monitoring and recovery

Products and Services That Infringe on Intellectual Property

• Sales or distribution of music, movies, software or any other licensed materials without appropriate authorization
• Counterfeit goods
• Illegally imported or exported products
• Unauthorized sale of brand name or designer products or services
• Any other products or services that directly infringe or facilitate infringement upon the trademark, patent, copyright, trade secrets, proprietary or privacy rights of any third party

The Following Legal Services

• Bankruptcy attorneys
• Bail bonds
• Law firms collecting funds for purposes other than legal service fee payment

‍Marijuana‍

• Cannabis products
• Cannabis dispensaries and related businesses
• CBD products with THC levels that are greater than the applicable local jurisdiction’s legal limit, including CBD edibles
• Hydroponic equipment and other cultivation or production equipment marketed for growing marijuana
• Courses and information on cultivating marijuana

Nutraceuticals and Pseudo Pharmaceuticals

• Pseudo pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals focused on significant weight loss or sexual performance
• Pseudo pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals making unsupportable or harmful claims

Travel

• Commercial airlines and cruises
• Timeshare services

Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices

‍These include acts or practices that contravene rules, laws, regulation or guidance prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or other local consumer regulatory bodies.

• Pyramid schemes
• Multi-level marketing services offering commission or recruitment-based sales
• “Get rich quick” schemes, including: investment opportunities or other services that promise high rewards to mislead consumers; schemes that claim to offer high rewards for very little effort or up front work; and sites that promise fast and easy money
• Businesses that make outrageous claims, use deceptive testimonials, use high-pressure upselling or use fake testimonials
• Businesses offering unrealistic incentives or rewards as an inducement to purchase products or services
• No value added services including the sale or resale of a service without added benefit to the buyer and resale of government offerings without authorization or added value
• Sales of online traffic or engagement
• Negative option marketing, negative option membership clubs, and reduced price trials with unclear or hidden pricing 
• Telemarketing
• Predatory mortgage consulting
• Predatory investment opportunities with no or low money down
• Suspicious remote technical support
• Door-to-door sales
• Document falsification services
• Any other businesses that Stripe considers unfair, deceptive or predatory towards consumers

Weapons, Firearms, Explosives and Dangerous Materials

• Guns, gunpowders, ammunitions, fireworks and other explosives
• Weapon components such as firing pins, magazines, clips, and firearm conversion kits and any 3D-printed weapons
• Improperly marked replicas of modern firearms, including toys
• Pepper spray and stun guns
• Swords and katanas, unless they are meant as replicas or for the practice of martial arts
• Machetes
• Disguised knives and knives with opening mechanisms designed for quick deployment of a blade
• Pesticides requiring application by a certified professional 
• Research chemicals
• Toxic, flammable, combustible or radioactive materials
• Unmailable goods, per the United States Postal Service

Restricted Businesses

The following activities require written permission from Schemon, this is required mainly due o payment processor requirments. The types of businesses listed below are representative of our Restricted Businesses, but not exhaustive.

• CBD products containing only negligible amounts of THC, per local limits
• Lending services, including real estate loans
• Bank account funding
• Buy Now Pay Later services
• Crowdfunding
• Debt collection agencies
• ATMs
• Insurance services (including medical benefit packages)
• Money transmitters, remittances,currency exchange services, and other money service businesses
• Peer to peer money transmission
• Escrow services
• Neobanks or challenger banks
• Check cashing
• Payable-through account
• Funded prop trading
• Shell banks
• Selling bearer shares
• Other financial service
• Online pharmacies, including SaaS platforms
• Card-not-present prescription-only products and pharmaceuticals
• Prescription-only and regulated medical devices
• Prescription delivery services
• Telemedicine and telehealth services
• Tobacco products including e-cigarettes, cigars, and e-liquid
• Herbal cigarettes
• Production equipment specifically marketed for the production of tobacco products
• Cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets
• First-party NFT minting and sales
• Prepaid phone cards, sim cards, and phone services
• Sale of stored value or credits maintained, accepted and issued by anyone other than the seller
• Sale of in-game currency or game items, unless the business is the operator of the virtual world
• Preloaded payment cards, gift cards, virtual credits or other products and services in which a monetary value is stored within the item
• Age restricted goods or services such as alcoholic beverages
• Payment facilitation and aggregation
• Travel reservation services and clubs
• Charter and private airlines
• Drop shipping
• Soliciting donations or fund contributions
• Charity sweepstakes and raffles for the explicit purpose of fundraising

Jurisdiction-Specific Prohibited Businesses

Some businesses and activities are prohibited in certain regions, countries and states.

Updates to This Prohibited and Restricted Businesses Policy

This Prohibited and Restricted Business Policy might be updated from time to time. The date at the top of this Prohibited and Restricted Business Policy indicates when it was last updated. Please re-visit this Prohibited and Restricted Business Policy regularly to stay informed.

How to Reach Us

If you have a question about this Prohibited and Restricted Business Policy, or you would like tocontact us about any of your rights mentioned herein, please contact us at info@schemon.com.

You may reach us by mail at Schemon, Inc., Christiana Corporate Business Center, 200 Continental Dr, Suite 401, PMB 1578, Newark, DE, 19713, USA.