Prohibited Businesses

The businesses and activities that cannot use Caldik.

Last updated: July 26, 2026

Caldik is a general-purpose commerce platform and ordinarily does not decide whether a lawful business may accept a particular payment method. This Policy forms part of the Terms of Service, should be read with the Acceptable Use Policy, and is intentionally limited to activities Caldik will not host because they create direct platform-level legal, safety, exploitation, or severe abuse risks. The Privacy Policy explains how information may be processed during policy reviews.

1. Caldik’s general position#

Caldik generally permits lawful businesses, including crypto and other regulated businesses, to use its storefront, website, product, API, hosting, builder, and operational tools. A merchant remains responsible for its business, licences, customers, products, marketing, fulfilment, taxes, and legal compliance.

Payment acceptance is separate from access to the Caldik platform. Storrik, card acquirers, banks, wallet providers, and other processors apply their own underwriting, verification, regional, network, and prohibited-business rules. A merchant may be able to use Caldik even where a particular processor declines or limits payment services.

Caldik does not guarantee that a merchant will qualify for card, bank, crypto, payout, settlement, or other financial features. Caldik may technically disable an unsupported payment method without disabling an otherwise lawful storefront.

2. Scope#

This Policy applies to the merchant, its controllers, storefront content, products, services, transaction flows, fulfilment, marketing, use of customer data, and use of Caldik infrastructure. Conduct is prohibited if it falls within an absolute prohibition below, is structured to evade one, or uses a nominally lawful product as a cover for prohibited activity.

The examples are illustrative. We assess the substance, purpose, marketing, delivery, and real-world effect of a business, not only its label.

3. Absolute platform prohibitions#

Exploitation and harmful services#

Caldik has zero tolerance for businesses or services involving exploitation or deliberate serious harm. Prohibited activity includes:

  • Child sexual exploitation or abuse material, grooming, sexualisation of minors, or any service that facilitates abuse of a minor.

  • Human trafficking, forced or coercive labour, sale of people, or services that recruit, transport, conceal, or profit from exploitation.

  • Non-consensual intimate material, sexual extortion, stalking-for-hire, targeted harassment services, or publication of personal information to facilitate harm.

  • Violence-for-hire, credible threats, organised intimidation, or services whose principal purpose is to cause serious physical harm.

  • Hate-based services organised to persecute, threaten, or facilitate violence against people based on protected characteristics.

Dangerous goods and services#

Caldik will not host the sale or facilitation of dangerous goods where the item or service is unlawful, inherently intended to cause serious harm, or cannot reasonably be distributed safely through an ordinary online storefront. Prohibited activity includes:

  • Illegal firearms, prohibited weapons, explosives, destructive devices, or components primarily intended to create an unlawful weapon.

  • Illegal drugs, unlawfully supplied controlled substances, or products primarily marketed to manufacture or distribute illegal drugs.

  • Poisons, highly hazardous chemicals, radioactive material, biological agents, or other dangerous material sold without the licences, controls, packaging, and lawful delivery arrangements required for safe distribution.

  • Instructions, services, or transactions whose principal purpose is to enable a serious violent offence or evade controls on dangerous goods.

  • Any sale intentionally directed to a person who cannot legally purchase or possess the item, including an attempt to bypass required age, identity, licence, or location controls.

Serious fraud, theft, and unlawful trade#

  • Fraud, scams, phishing, impersonation, fake storefronts, deceptive fundraising, fabricated investment schemes, pyramid or Ponzi schemes, or deliberate transaction laundering.

  • Stolen goods, stolen payment data, compromised accounts, unlawfully obtained personal information, forged official documents, or services that create or sell false identities.

  • Counterfeit or pirated goods and content, or businesses built primarily on deliberate intellectual-property infringement.

  • Money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, concealment of criminal proceeds, mule recruitment, or services intended to defeat lawful financial controls.

  • Business models that are illegal in the place where they are operated, marketed, sold, delivered, or used.

Malicious cyber activity#

  • Malware, ransomware, credential-stealing tools, botnets, denial-of-service services, unauthorised access services, or stolen authentication material.

  • Exploit, surveillance, or interception products promoted or supplied primarily for unauthorised access, theft, coercion, or harm.

  • Hosting, checkout, domains, APIs, or digital delivery used to conduct phishing, distribute malicious payloads, control compromised systems, or monetise stolen data.

Unlawful health and human-material trade#

  • Sale of human organs, unlawfully obtained human tissue, or falsified medical and health documents.

  • Unlawful prescription medicines, controlled medical products supplied without required authority, or treatments presented through deliberate and dangerous fraud.

  • Products or services that make unlawful claims likely to cause serious harm by inducing a person to avoid necessary professional care.

4. Generally permitted but processor-dependent businesses#

The categories below are not prohibited by Caldik merely because they are regulated, higher risk, or commonly restricted by payment companies. They may use Caldik when lawful. However, the selected payment processor may require verification, licensing, reserves, limits, a specialist agreement, or may refuse service.

  • Cryptocurrency, blockchain software, self-custody tools, wallets, infrastructure, analytics, education, mining-related products, token services, exchanges, brokerage, and other digital-asset businesses.

  • Financial technology, lending, investments, insurance, crowdfunding, remittance, money services, payment facilitation, and other regulated financial services.

  • Lawful gaming, competitions, skill contests, prize promotions, fantasy sports, wagering, or gambling-related businesses.

  • Age-restricted but lawful products and services that use all required age, identity, delivery, and geographic controls.

  • Supplements, pharmacies, telehealth, medical devices, testing, wellness, and other health-related businesses.

  • Marketplaces, dropshipping, ticketing, pre-orders, subscriptions, travel, charities, political fundraising, high-value goods, and other businesses with elevated fraud, fulfilment, or chargeback risk.

  • Data, identity, background-check, security, surveillance, and dual-use technology businesses that operate lawfully and do not fall within an absolute prohibition.

The merchant is solely responsible for selecting compatible payment providers and maintaining its relationship and account standing with each processor or payment provider. This includes completing onboarding or verification, meeting licensing and reserve requirements, paying provider fees, managing disputes and chargebacks, complying with provider terms, and responding to provider requests.

Caldik does not negotiate, maintain, manage, appeal, reinstate, or secure a merchant’s processor or payment-provider relationship and has no obligation to find or connect a replacement provider. If a provider rejects, restricts, suspends, or terminates a merchant, the merchant is responsible for resolving the matter directly with that provider or independently selecting another provider supported by Caldik.

Caldik may disable or remove a payment method that is unavailable, disconnected, unsupported, or no longer authorised by the relevant provider. This is a technical consequence of the provider relationship and does not make the merchant’s otherwise lawful business prohibited by Caldik.

5. Crypto businesses#

Lawful crypto businesses are generally allowed on Caldik. Storrik Crypto supports a non-custodial wallet-to-wallet payment flow. The merchant supplies an xpub, public key, or destination wallet address, and supported customer payments are sent directly to the merchant-controlled destination. Neither Caldik nor Storrik receives a private key, holds funds, controls the wallet, or can withdraw or reverse the payment.

The supported Storrik Crypto flow does not require the merchant to link or create a Storrik account. The merchant may configure the required public wallet information through Caldik. Merchants who separately use a Storrik account or dashboard provide and manage the relevant information directly in Storrik.

Caldik and Storrik do not require platform identity verification for the standard non-custodial wallet-to-wallet feature. This does not override any verification, sanctions, security, fraud-prevention, or legal requirement that may become applicable to a merchant, transaction, jurisdiction, asset, network, or separately enabled service.

Crypto businesses must not use Caldik to steal keys or funds, disguise criminal proceeds, evade sanctions, conduct market or investment fraud, impersonate a legitimate project, or mislead users about custody, returns, token rights, smart-contract risk, or transaction finality.

A public blockchain transaction may be irreversible and visible to network participants. Merchants must clearly disclose wallet, network, asset, pricing, refund, custody, and fulfilment terms relevant to their product. Merchants are responsible for private-key security and for ensuring the xpub, public key, address derivation, destination wallet, asset, and network are correct. Caldik is not responsible for blockchain operation or for deciding whether a crypto activity requires a licence.

6. Merchant and processor responsibility#

The merchant must determine whether its business, product, marketing, payments, and delivery are lawful in every relevant jurisdiction. The merchant must obtain licences, registrations, professional advice, age checks, identity checks, customer disclosures, consent, shipping controls, and tax treatment required for its activity.

A payment provider is responsible for its own onboarding and risk decisions. Caldik may transmit category, transaction, technical, or account information required to operate a payment connection, but does not promise approval and does not override a provider’s decision.

If a processor suspends or terminates payment services, the merchant must not route the same transactions through another account, business name, product description, or merchant to conceal the true activity. The merchant may continue using non-payment Caldik features only if the underlying business remains lawful and complies with this Policy.

7. Disclosure and accuracy#

A merchant must accurately describe what it sells, who fulfils it, who receives funds, expected delivery, subscription terms, refund terms, relevant risks, and all material regulated features. It must not use misleading product names, hidden redirects, undeclared sub-merchants, or false transaction descriptors.

Caldik may request information reasonably needed to investigate an apparent absolute prohibition, a credible legal complaint, security risk, provider routing issue, or material misrepresentation. A request does not mean that Caldik generally underwrites every business.

8. Enforcement#

For an apparent absolute prohibition, Caldik may remove content, disable a storefront or deployment, restrict APIs, preserve evidence, suspend an account, or terminate access. Immediate action may be taken where delay could expose people to exploitation, serious harm, fraud, malware, unlawful dangerous goods, or legal risk.

For a processor-only restriction, Caldik will ordinarily limit or disconnect the affected payment feature rather than prohibit the entire lawful business. Other Caldik features may remain available if they can be provided safely and lawfully.

Where practical, Caldik will consider context, evidence, merchant response, remediation, and whether a narrower restriction is sufficient. Caldik may report conduct or comply with preservation and disclosure duties where required by law.

9. Reporting and review#

Report a storefront that appears to violate an absolute prohibition to support@caldik.com. Include the storefront URL, relevant product or transaction reference, the specific concern, and supporting material. Do not submit unlawful content itself unless specifically requested through a secure channel.

A merchant may request review of an enforcement decision by providing accurate business information and evidence that the activity is lawful and outside the absolute prohibitions. A review does not require Caldik or a payment provider to restore a feature that cannot be supported.

10. Changes#

We may update this Policy to address new forms of exploitation, serious harm, fraud, malicious activity, law, or platform risk. Payment providers may separately change their own acceptance rules. The current published version applies to ongoing use of Caldik.