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Acceptable Use Policy

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We’re in this thing together. The actions individual Members take can have a big impact on our system as a whole. That’s why all Mailchimp Members must follow this Acceptable Use Policy in their use of Mailchimp and any other Mailchimp Add-ons or products we may offer, like Websites, Ads, Mandrill, TinyLetter and Stores. If you violate this policy, we may suspend or terminate your account. We may also suspend or terminate accounts according to our Standard Terms of Use where we see behavior, content, or other factors that pose a threat to our platform. If a term is capitalized in this Acceptable Use Policy but isn’t defined, it has the meaning given to it in our Standard Terms of Use.

Prohibited Content

Please don’t use Mailchimp to distribute anything offensive, to promote anything illegal, or to harass anyone. You may not use Mailchimp to create, send, display, advertise, or sell (as applicable):

  • Illegal goods or services
  • Emails that violate the CAN-SPAM act or other anti-spam laws
  • Pornography/sexually explicit content
  • Campaigns promoting or supporting terrorism or violent extremism
  • Counterfeit products or products that infringe the intellectual property rights of others, including trademark, copyright, design or patent rights
  • Products claiming to prevent, treat, or cure COVID-19 that are not approved or authorized for emergency use by regulatory or public health agencies, such as the FDA in the U.S.
  • Products that are in demand due to COVID-19 with excessive pricing, price gouging, or deceptive pricing practices or in demand due to COVID-19 and prohibited by applicable law

Some industries have higher-than-average abuse complaints, which can jeopardize deliverability. In order to maintain the reliability of our platform, we do not allow businesses that offer these types of services, products, or content:

  • Escort services, mail-order bride/spouse finders, international marriage brokers, and other similar sites and services
  • Hookup, swinger, or sexual encounter sites or services
  • Pharmaceutical products
  • Work-at-home scams, make money online, and lead generation opportunities
  • Gambling services or products
  • Multi-level marketing
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Credit repair and get out of debt opportunities
  • List brokers or list rental services
  • Selling “Likes” or followers for a social media platform
  • Cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering

Content Subject to Additional Scrutiny

We’ve also found that certain types of content may cause higher-than-average abuse rates. For that reason, we may closely review accounts that offer the following services, products, or content:

  • Online trading, day trading tips, or stock market related content
  • Daily horoscope reports
  • Mortgages and loans
  • Nutritional, herbal, and vitamin supplements
  • Adult entertainment/novelty items
  • Online dating services and applications (dating sites or services with a sexual emphasis or sexually explicit content – including images depicting nudity – are not permitted)
  • Real estate
  • Services that support programmatically sending mail on behalf of third parties without creating or reviewing the content
  • Products in demand due to COVID-19 and regulated by applicable law

If we identify abuse in our sole discretion, we may suspend, throttle, or disable the account.

Prohibited Actions

We work hard to maintain the positive reputation of our platform, but we count on our Members to pitch in too. You may not:

  • Send Spam. Spam can be in the form of bulk emails or one to one commercial emails.
    • You must be able to point to an opt-in form or show other evidence of consent for any commercial or marketing email you send.
  • Include in your Campaigns, Websites, Ads, or account or sell in your Store any material that wasn’t created by you, provided for you to use, or that would violate anyone’s rights. That includes text, photos, graphics, and other content.
  • Use any misleading or incorrect names, addresses, email addresses, subject lines, or other information in the Service or in any Campaigns created, managed, or sent using our Service.
  • Share your password.
  • Decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the Software.
  • Use any of the Software to create a competing product.
  • Send marketing emails that do not contain a Mailchimp unsubscribe mechanism or send emails that use an external unsubscribe process.
  • Set up multiple accounts for any person or entity in order to send similar content, unless you’re part of a franchise or agency.
  • Import or incorporate any of this information into any account, audience, emails, or otherwise upload to our servers: Social Security numbers, passwords, security credentials, or sensitive personal information.
  • Send Campaigns that will be delivered to recipients as text, SMS, or MMS messages unless using a feature designed for that purpose.
  • Upload or send email Campaigns to purchased, rented, third-party, co-reg, publicly available data, or partner lists of any kind.
  • Send or forward personal mail.
  • Send content created in Mailchimp through another service.
  • Host images on our servers for any purpose other than for your use of the Service.
  • Host Content on our servers for any purpose other than for your use of the Service.
  • Except as permitted under our Standard Terms of Use, take any action intended to avoid our billing thresholds.
  • Send bulk emails, meaning emails directed to a number of individuals with the same content, through Transactional (formerly known as Mandrill).
    • Transactional is designed for transactional email. Please use Mailchimp campaigns for your bulk sending needs.
  • Send bulk emails, meaning commercial or marketing emails directed to a number of individuals with the same content, through Mailchimp Inbox.
    • Mailchimp Inbox is designed for one-to-one messages. Please use Mailchimp campaigns for your bulk sending needs.
    • If you send a message through your Mailchimp Inbox that may be considered a commercial or marketing communication under applicable law, you can use the Opt-out Footer to comply with applicable law and provide your Contacts with the means to unsubscribe from one-to-one messages sent through Inbox.
  • Sell or offer to sell any counterfeit products or products that infringe the intellectual property rights of others, including trademark, copyright, design or patent rights.

Best Practices

As a marketing platform with millions of customers all over the world, we feel it’s our responsibility to be extra vigilant in preventing abuse of our services to protect both our customers and their contacts. It’s also in our best interest to keep the platform clean because our reputation and deliverability depend on it. For that reason, we provide, and may update from time to time, articles outlining best practices in our knowledge base. For example, we offer guidelines about audience permission and best practices. You may only use Mailchimp in accordance with these best practices, and we may suspend or terminate your account if you violate them.

Thanks for taking the time to read our Acceptable Use Policy.

Updated May 18, 2021