Acceptable Use and Merchant Commerce Policy

Version: 2026-08-03

Effective date: 3 August 2026

This Policy is part of the Merchant Terms. It protects shoppers, merchants, the Service, connected providers, and the public. It does not replace a merchant's own legal duties. “Content” includes products, listings, media, reviews, messages, domains, code, data, links, AI outputs, and activity submitted or controlled by Merchant.

1. Prohibited products and services

Merchant must not use the Service to offer, promote, facilitate, or fulfil:

an unlawful product, service, transaction, lottery, investment, or fundraising activity;
stolen, counterfeit, pirated, deceptively branded, or rights-infringing goods;
controlled drugs, illegal narcotics, drug-production material, or unlawfully sold prescription medicine;
weapons, explosives, ammunition, or instructions primarily intended to cause serious harm, except a category expressly reviewed and lawfully supported in a signed Order Form;
child sexual abuse material, sexual exploitation, trafficking, non-consensual intimate imagery, sexual content involving a minor, or any service enabling them;
live animals, protected wildlife, illegally sourced body parts, organs, or human remains;
personal data, credentials, financial accounts, payment instruments, identity documents, SIM registrations, exam answers, or access devices obtained or traded without lawful authority;
malware, phishing kits, credential theft, botnets, denial-of-service tools, or a service primarily designed to bypass security or facilitate cybercrime;
goods subject to sanctions, import/export restriction, recall, or mandatory licence where Merchant lacks the required authorisation; or
a product or service that a connected payment, courier, telecom, or domain provider lawfully prohibits, when that provider is needed for the transaction.

Regulated categories—including food, medicine, cosmetics, health claims, financial services, travel, telecom, alcohol, tobacco, gaming, charities, and age-restricted goods—may be used only when lawful, accurately described, appropriately licensed, age-gated where required, and supported by the selected providers. MuthoCommerce may require evidence before enabling a category.

2. Prohibited conduct

Merchant and Authorised Users must not:

deceive, impersonate, conceal the seller, manipulate price or scarcity, fabricate endorsements, or make an unsubstantiated product, health, income, environmental, or comparative claim;
take payment without a reasonable ability and intention to supply on the disclosed terms, run a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, launder money, or evade tax or sanctions;
infringe copyright, trademark, publicity, privacy, database, or other rights;
collect, disclose, scrape, sell, re-identify, or use personal data without lawful authority, required notice, and a legitimate stated purpose;
send spam, buy or harvest contact lists, spoof sender identity, bypass an opt-out, or use transactional channels for disguised marketing;
upload malware, probe another tenant, evade authentication or rate limits, access data without authorisation, interfere with availability, or use the Service for cryptomining or disproportionate automated load;
use an API key, webhook secret, integration token, or staff credential belonging to another person, or publish a secret in client code or a public repository;
threaten, harass, exploit, discriminate unlawfully, glorify terrorism, incite violence, or target a person with hateful or dehumanising abuse;
manipulate reviews, suppress a genuine negative review solely because it is negative, post a fake review, or offer an undisclosed incentive for a positive review; or
help another person do any of the above.

3. Minimum public-store information

Before accepting an order, each store must display in clear, accessible language:

Merchant's real business or proprietor name, service address, working telephone or electronic contact, and registration/DBID or licence where required;
the material product characteristics, quantity or size, ingredients or composition where relevant, condition, country/origin claim if made, stock status, and material safety or use restriction;
the actual selling price, applicable tax, delivery charge, payment charge, recurring charge, and any other unavoidable amount before final order confirmation;
realistic delivery area and estimated time, available payment methods, and whether the item is custom, pre-order, perishable, digital, or otherwise subject to a disclosed exception;
cancellation, return, replacement, refund, warranty, and complaint terms in a form the shopper can retain; and
a store privacy notice describing each collection purpose, recipient, retention, tracking technology, marketing choice, and rights route.

Disclosures must appear before purchase, not only in a social post or after payment. Images and video must materially represent the supplied product. A crossed-out reference price, countdown, low-stock claim, testimonial, rating, or “free” offer must be truthful and supportable.

For a Bangladesh-facing store, the material product, delivery, cancellation, return, refund, warranty, complaint, privacy, and purchase terms must be available in clear Bangla. Another language may be offered, but material versions must not conflict.

Merchant's terms may be more generous than law. They may not waive, hide, or misdescribe a mandatory consumer right.

Checkout must not preselect a paid add-on, donation, tip, warranty, subscription, or marketing consent. The final action must clearly state that it places an order and show the total recurring or one-time obligation. Merchant must not make cancellation, refund, rejection of optional tracking, or complaint materially harder than purchase.

A loyalty programme must disclose how points are earned, redeemed, expired, reversed, and affected by returns before enrolment. Merchant must not retrospectively remove earned points except for a disclosed expiry, refunded/invalid transaction, fraud, programme closure handled under the disclosed terms, or legal requirement.

A full cancellation or refund must restore points used for the affected promotional discount and reverse points earned from the affected purchase. A partial refund must apply those adjustments proportionately to the refunded eligible value. Fraud, duplicate transactions, or another invalid transaction may be handled differently under disclosed anti-abuse rules. Restored points must keep their original expiry or receive at least 30 days to be used, whichever is later.

MuthoCommerce may enable a Bangladesh promotional loyalty safe mode without prepaid-instrument approval evidence only while all of the following remain true:

points are awarded without a separate charge and cannot be purchased or topped up;
points are account-bound, non-transferable, and unavailable for cash-out, refund to money, bank or mobile-financial-service transfer, or cross-merchant use;
the account and transaction history state points, not a BDT deposit, wallet, stored monetary balance, or current cash-equivalent balance;
redemption gives an issuing-Merchant-funded discount, free item, delivery benefit, status benefit, or another disclosed promotional reward; and
any flexible checkout discount is affirmatively selected by the shopper, applies only to eligible merchandise, is subject to platform and Merchant caps, cannot by itself settle the whole order, and is calculated by the Service at checkout rather than held as a withdrawable or transferable BDT balance.

For the current MuthoCommerce promotional safe mode, the platform cap is 50% of the eligible merchandise subtotal, and a reward cannot reduce an order's payable amount below one minor currency unit. A Merchant may set a lower cap or stricter eligibility rule. The cap is a promotional-price rule, not a conversion rate or cash value for points.

Checkout must show the actual monetary discount and final amount payable after a reward is selected. That order-specific price disclosure must not be described as the cash value of the shopper's points. Merchant must not market points as cash, credit, a deposit, or a wallet. MuthoCommerce may require a written regulatory classification before enabling purchased points, stored BDT value, transfer, cross-merchant use, uncapped or full-order settlement, or another payment-like characteristic outside this safe mode.

Prepaid instruments, gift cards, and payment substitutes

A voucher, gift card, reward card, store credit, or similarly named product that stores value in BDT acquired in exchange for money and is accepted instead of money is a prepaid-instrument use for this Policy. For a Bangladesh store, Merchant must not issue, sell, activate, or redeem such a product unless:

the entity that legally issues and owes the value is identified;
that issuer has supplied MuthoCommerce with current written Bangladesh Bank approval for the applicable closed or semi-closed prepaid-instrument model;
the issuer has supplied evidence that it continues to meet the approval, eligibility, accounting, reporting, customer-disclosure, complaint, and limit requirements; and
MuthoCommerce has confirmed in writing that the configured technical flow implements the approved model. Plan entitlement or feature visibility is not confirmation.

Unless the applicable written approval expressly permits it, Merchant must not make a prepaid instrument reloadable; call it a wallet; permit cash-out, bank transfer, ATM withdrawal, inter-instrument balance transfer, or conversion into another purchasing currency; or permit redemption outside the approved issuer or registered seller group. Merchant remains the issuer of a single-store instrument when it receives the sale proceeds and owes the goods or services. MuthoCommerce does not become the issuer, custodian, or settlement provider merely by supplying software, but may suspend a flow whose actual funds, liability, or redemption structure would change that role.

A non-purchased, non-transferable, single-use promotional discount code or reward that cannot be redeemed for cash and does not maintain a stored monetary balance is not treated as a prepaid instrument under this Policy solely because it reduces a purchase price. Merchant must not describe such a benefit as cash, a wallet, a deposit, or withdrawable value.

MuthoCommerce's customer-purchased monetary gift-card flow must remain unavailable for Bangladesh stores until the conditions above are satisfied and the implementation is verified against the issuer's approval. An administrator-issued goodwill benefit must use the promotional discount/reward model above, not a reloadable or partially redeemable BDT balance. A shopper refund must return through the original lawful payment route unless a different method is requested by the shopper, lawful for the particular transaction, and technically supported without creating unauthorised stored value.

4. Order confirmation, fulfilment, and delivery

Merchant must give the shopper a durable order confirmation showing order number, items, quantities, total price, payment status, delivery details, Merchant contact, and applicable cancellation/refund route. Merchant must maintain accurate stock and promptly disclose a material delay or substitution. A substitution requires the shopper's affirmative agreement.

For a Bangladesh consumer order paid in advance, Merchant must, unless a lawful and current rule expressly permits a different arrangement, ensure that a product offered for full advance payment is ready to be handed to a delivery provider within 48 hours. If it is not ready at that level, Merchant must not collect more than 10% in advance unless a legally authorised payment-protection or escrow arrangement permits it.

Merchant must then:

hand the goods to the delivery provider within 48 hours after payment and notify the shopper with available tracking or dispatch information;
arrange delivery within 5 days when the shopper is in the same city and within 10 days when in a different city; and
if supply becomes impossible because of an unforeseen event, notify the shopper within 48 hours after learning that fact and initiate a full refund to the original payment method within the following 72 hours; and
for any other failure to deliver a prepaid order, initiate the required refund no later than 10 days after the failure or cancellation, excluding additional time controlled solely by the bank or payment provider.

Merchant remains responsible to the shopper when it appoints a courier. A courier failure does not permit Merchant to keep payment indefinitely or stop communicating. Cash-on-delivery orders must still have an accurate confirmation and cancellation route.

5. Returns, refunds, and complaints

Merchant must operate the policy displayed at purchase and any stronger right required by law. It may decline a return only on a disclosed, lawful, evidence-based ground. A refund must include amounts required by law and must not be replaced with store credit without the shopper's agreement.

Merchant must provide a complaint channel that a shopper can use without creating an account. Merchant must acknowledge a complaint promptly, preserve the relevant order and communications, and provide a reasoned solution within 72 hours. If final resolution depends on a bank, courier, manufacturer, or investigation, Merchant must explain the dependency, interim protection, responsible contact, and next dated update within that period. Silence is not a resolution.

Merchant must not condition a refund or support on removal of a truthful review, withdrawal of a lawful regulator complaint, or surrender of a non-waivable right. For Bangladesh-facing stores, complaint information should include the national consumer complaint route where required or appropriate.

6. Reviews and user content

Merchant may moderate a review for spam, duplicate content, unlawful threats, personal data, obscenity unrelated to the product, proven non-purchase manipulation, or rights infringement. Merchant must not remove or demote a review solely because it is critical. Material edits by Merchant must be identified; ratings must not count removed or fabricated reviews as genuine.

A discount, free product, affiliate relationship, employee relationship, or other material incentive connected to a review or endorsement must be clearly disclosed. Merchant must keep a moderation reason and original record long enough to address a complaint or investigation.

Merchant must have a documented lawful basis for each marketing audience. Consent, where required, must be specific, informed, affirmative, recorded, and as easy to withdraw as to give. Buying a product does not by itself authorise unrelated bulk marketing.

Each marketing message must accurately identify Merchant, avoid deceptive subjects or sender names, disclose material offer conditions, and provide a working opt-out. Merchant must stop marketing to an opted-out person without undue delay and no later than 5 business days, while retaining only a minimal suppression record. Transactional messages must be limited to the order, account, security, or service purpose that justifies them.

Automated chat, comment, and social responses must identify the merchant, avoid pretending to be a human when that would mislead, provide a human escalation route, and follow the AI and Developer Features Policy.

8. Records and cooperation

Merchant must preserve order, product, price, policy-version, consent, fulfilment, refund, complaint, and material business-operation records for at least 6 years when required for Bangladesh digital commerce, tax, or consumer compliance. Merchant should minimise unrelated personal data and securely delete it when no longer needed.

On a substantiated complaint or authority request, Merchant must promptly provide records reasonably needed to verify legality, licence, consent, supply, delivery, refund, or ownership. MuthoCommerce will limit access and will not demand sensitive data unrelated to the issue.

9. Reporting, enforcement, and appeal

Anyone may report suspected illegality, unsafe goods, infringement, fraud, privacy abuse, or policy breach through the public Abuse/IP channel on Contact MuthoCommerce. A report should identify the store or URL, issue, affected right, supporting evidence, and a safe contact. Knowingly false or bad-faith reports are prohibited.

MuthoCommerce uses the proportionate enforcement process in the Merchant Terms: targeted content or feature action where adequate; notice and ordinarily 7 days to cure a non-urgent issue; immediate action for serious legal, safety, fraud, security, or provider risk. MuthoCommerce may preserve evidence and report suspected crime where lawful. Merchant may appeal with new facts or remediation evidence. MuthoCommerce will record the decision and restore wrongly restricted material promptly.

10. Intellectual-property notices

A rights notice must identify the protected work or mark, the allegedly infringing material and precise location, the reporter's authority, a good-faith statement, accurate contact details, and a signed declaration that the information is accurate. MuthoCommerce may forward the notice to Merchant with unnecessary personal data removed.

Merchant may respond with evidence of ownership, licence, lawful exception, or misidentification. MuthoCommerce may restore material when the notice is withdrawn or the evidence supports restoration, unless law or a court order prevents it. Repeated substantiated infringement or repeated abusive notices may lead to account action. This process does not decide private ownership disputes that require a court.