Whatnot Community Guidelines

At Whatnot, we've created a fun, safe and inclusive community for collectors and like-minded people.

We're asking buyers and sellers, our community, to adhere to the following simple guidelines: be nice and be honest.

Violation of any of these guidelines may subject your account to corrective action in accordance with our What Actions We Take guidelines.

Guidelines for everyone:

• Do not engage in any form of harassment or discrimination, including racism, bigotry, or misogyny. We have a zero-tolerance policy on any of this behavior. If you’re caught doing it, your account may be banned.
• Treat Whatnot Staff with Respect: It can be frustrating when things go wrong, but the staff is here to help; treat them with respect, and cooperate with problem-solving. Abusing seller/support tools and harassing Whatnot Staff is not tolerated and will be subject to corrective action on the platform.  
• Do Not Share the Personal Information (including addresses) of other users. 
• Do Not Spam:
  • Do not send the same message over and over again.
  • We do not condone phishing of any sort within the Whatnot app.
  • Troll bidding (bidding an excessively high amount with no intention to purchase) is not permitted on the app.
• Do Not Game Auctions: Don’t do anything to disrupt a live auction or artificially influence the price of an item. This includes employees of sellers: employees can’t bid on your items as a seller and sellers can’t bid on employees’ items.
• Do Not Game Giveaways: No use of robotic, automatic, programmed, or the like entry methods are permitted. All entries made by these methods will be voided and your account access may be limited if found utilizing these methods.
• Do not purchase items or engage in giveaways for items that a seller has promised in future livestreams. Whatnot does not allow sellers to promote redemption of purchases or giveaways in future livestreams and is not liable for such purchases or giveaways.
  • Offering credit for future sales or giveaways is not permitted
• Do Not Buy or Sell Whatnot Accounts or Features
  • Buying, or selling Whatnot accounts is prohibited. You are responsible for the activity that happens under your username; accounts should only be used by those to whom the account is issued. This includes selling or transferring your account to another user.
  • Selling or buying Whatnot features such as raids, follows, and reviews are prohibited. Advertising the sale of Whatnot features is also prohibited.
• Do not abuse referrals: Users cannot create multiple accounts to receive additional referral credits. If you are found in violation of this rule, you may be subject to a permanent ban from Whatnot.
• Do Not Improperly Associate the Whatnot Name or Brand with Obscene or Inappropriate Content
  
  • Explicit language in your Whatnot username or livestream title is strictly prohibited
  • We reserve the right to the use of 'Whatnot' in usernames for employees only
  • All other accounts using 'Whatnot' in their username are prohibited and will be subject to investigation
  • Using 'Whatnot' in social media account usernames is discouraged and will be subject to investigation (and legal action if deemed trying to impersonate our brand)
  • We will issue corrective action to any user that improperly associates our brand with harmful and/or inappropriate content on social media or elsewhere

Guidelines for sellers:

• You are responsible for your account - As the account owner, you are responsible for all behavior related to the channel, including violations of our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. This applies whether an account is run by an individual or a company. Any misbehavior, including those related to conduct by guests, content featured or rebroadcast, or employees' streaming and fulfillment will be reflected on your account record.
  • In addition to taking action on the hosting account, we may take additional action on the accounts of guests, employees, and others involved in violative behavior.
• Do Not Sell or Giveaway Fakes: Never misrepresent the authenticity of an item
• Do not infringe on IP that you do not own or have not licensed. Whatnot prohibits the use of any items that violate the intellectual property rights of any party. Visit our IP Policy for more info. 
• Do Not Smoke or Vape Around Inventory: In order to ensure the quality of sold items on Whatnot, you may not use smoke products, including cigarettes and vaporizers, while onstream around inventory. This includes auction items, sold items, or giveaways
• Be Truthful about Condition: Be honest about the condition of an item you're selling
• Be Truthful about Pricing: To keep the Whatnot community inclusive and honest, please be fair and truthful with pricing. Never inflate the market value of an item, especially with “mystery packs” and other compilations.
• No Shill Bidding: Shill bidding is prohibited on Whatnot. Shill bidding is defined as a seller, or a user related to a seller, bidding on an item to artificially inflate the item price, whether from the same or separate accounts. Users related to a seller include a seller’s employees and members of the seller’s family or household. Whatnot monitors all bids and transactions and takes action on accounts suspected of shill bidding. Shill bidding may also violate laws in your state/country and result in severe penalties.
• Trading cards and mystery products must remain on camera at all times during opening: Removing unsealed or unopened packs, boxes, or cards from the full visibility of the stream is a violation of our policy.
• Do Not Manipulate Breaks:  Sellers, their family members, members of their household, or employees are not permitted to enter breaks they are facilitating on their own account.
• Do not offer or sell off-platform grading services: Sellers must not offer or sell grading services on Whatnot with the exception of our US-based sellers offering integrated PSA grading. For US-based sellers, please see the PSA Grading Overview for more details about offering integrated PSA grading on Whatnot.
• Adult and Mature Content:
  

  Due to the diversity in age and cultural backgrounds of our global community, we do not allow content that is sexually explicit, pornographic, or illegal, even if the explicit content button is toggled on. 

  • This includes content or products that explicitly describe or display sex organs, sex acts or other erotic behavior, or nudity that is sexually explicit in nature.
  • Mature or adult products that contain nudity, such as artwork, books, manga, or comic books, may be permitted if they are not sexually explicit or pornographic and no nudity is displayed in preview pictures. 
  • Nudity is not permitted in any streams, video-on-demand, preview pictures, pre-show videos, stories, or other content uploaded by sellers into Whatnot. This includes drawings and other art. 
  • In addition to our standard enforcement actions, we may use technology to detect and block explicit content upon upload. 
  • Some content may not be appropriate for all audiences but is not against our policies. We may limit the visibility of your stream if your preview photos or pre-show videos contain sensitive content.
  • Whatnot prohibits any content that is inconsistent with Whatnot’s values and brand. 
  • See the Items Prohibited from Being Sold on Whatnot.  
• Weapons, explosives, and other dangerous items and accessories are prohibited from being sold on Whatnot 
• No Direct Competitor Promotion: Do not promote direct competitors, encourage viewers to leave the platform or perform any other type of solicitation that directly impacts our community.

• Do not sell or go live from an unsupported country: Please see our help article on supported locations for more information.

• Be Responsible While Going Live: 
  • We discourage sellers from excessive drinking or marijuana use during streams. Do not sell alcohol, marijuana, or any related paraphernalia on the platform. 
  • You must be 18 years of age or older to host a live stream
    • Anyone under the age of 18 that you allow to appear on your livestream must be supervised. To demonstrate your supervision, you must at a minimum appear on screen at the start of your show.
• Do not start simultaneous livestreams from a single account:
  • Each Whatnot account is permitted to host a single active livestream at any point in time
  • Sellers should not under any circumstance host simultaneous Whatnot livestreams on a single account
  • Violation of this policy may be subject to corrective action
• Please ensure you are abiding by local & federal law while using the app.
  • The sale of any weapons is strictly prohibited on the Whatnot app
• Do Not Accept or Solicit Off-Platform Payments / Transactions: Payments for items sold must be processed through the Whatnot platform. Sellers should never accept or solicit payment - or any part of a transaction - outside of Whatnot’s system. Whatnot has zero tolerance for marketing products on live streams or elsewhere on Whatnot to sell off-platform. If you are found in violation of this rule, your account will be reviewed and it could be banned.

• No gambling or purchase-based prize games: Whatnot strictly prohibits gambling, including paid entries to raffles or races.  Whatnot also prohibits sales containing bounties and other purchase-based prizes. Learn more about our policies around gambling and purchase-based prizes.

• Follow standards around breaks and mystery boxes: Whatnot limits how breaks and mystery boxes can be sold. Please review our rules around breaking and mystery boxes if you are planning to run a game on these topics.

• Ship Quickly & Safely: Please ensure you ship your items within two business days of the sale. Carefully package your items to ensure they arrive safely.
  • There are a few instances where you may have extenuating circumstances, or an item you are selling may exceed our shipping drop-off guidelines due to the nature of the item, such as customized goods (e.g., art pieces). In these cases:
    • Email trustandsafety@whatnot.com before you list the item for sale or host a livestream, detailing why the shipment of these items may be delayed.
    • When listing the item, indicate that the item is customized in the product description.
• Don’t Abuse Our Shipping Pricing:  If you abuse our shipping pricing structure, you may be subject to corrective action and billed back for incorrect shipping charges.  See here for best practices on setting shipping weights.  Examples of abuse of our shipping pricing structure include:
  
  • Setting unreasonably low initial shipping weights when listing your item (e.g., 1oz for a pair of sneakers)
  • Setting excessively high shipping weights before sending off your shipment (e.g., 20lbs for a pair of sneakers)
• Uphold our standards off-platform: We expect Whatnot users to adhere to all of our Community Guidelines while on Whatnot.  We also recognize that severe offenses committed by Whatnot users on other platforms may pose substantial risk to the Whatnot community.  As a result, clear and incontrovertible evidence of any of the following actions taking place on any platform is subject to investigation and a warning, temporary, or permanent ban from Whatnot:
  
  • Knowingly selling fake items
  • Knowingly selling stolen assets, assets taken without authorization, and otherwise illegally obtained assets
  • Not honoring purchases / giveaways
  • Defrauding customers in any way
  • Explicit and/or credible threats of violence
  • Leadership or membership in a known hate group
  • Carrying out or deliberately acting as an accomplice to any form of assault or sexual exploitation of children.
  • Actions that would compromise the physical safety of the Whatnot community
  • Explicit and/or credible threats against Whatnot, including Whatnot staff
• In cases where the above behaviors have occurred in the distant past, users have gone through a rehabilitation process, and our investigation finds no evidence to suggest risk to the Whatnot community, we may decline to take action or revoke a prior action based on appeal.
  
  
• Follow all policies relating to the Giveaway feature:
  • You cannot deny a winner from the Giveaway feature
  • You may not apply restrictions to Giveaways outside of those that are natively hosted on our platform
  • You must disclose what the giveaway winner will receive before running the item
    • You cannot downgrade the prize if the buyer has not made a purchase
  • Requiring purchases for giveaway entries is illegal and you will be subject to investigation
  • If a giveaway is pinned, a winner for that giveaway must be selected 
  • If a seller does not ship out the giveaway item within our standard shipping timeframe, they may be subject to corrective action
  • Giveaways must also align with our Terms of Service and please abide by your local and state guidelines
  • Users who enter the giveaway but leave the stream are automatically removed at the time of drawing. Winners are not required to react in any way to claim their prize at the time of the drawing
  • Do not offer giveaways or sell items for redemption in a future stream. All orders and giveaways must be completed within the livestream the purchase was made or the giveaway was run in. Never "promise" a giveaway or item in a future livestream.
• If you are hosting a livestream, you must be actively engaged during the entirety of the show: At Whatnot, we strive to provide our buyers and sellers with the best experience possible. Below are some guidelines you must follow:
  • Pinning giveaways on an inactive stream is not allowed and the stream will be ended immediately, this does not include pinning giveaways on upcoming streams 
  • Buy-It-Now items on an inactive stream are not allowed and the stream will be ended immediately. You may continue to list Buy-It-Now items on upcoming streams. Do not repeatedly move the start date and time of a show - this may result in corrective action.
  • Sellers must end their stream through the app. Hard quitting the app will keep your stream active and could result in your account receiving corrective action.
  • Please refrain from rescheduling your livestreams excessively
• In addition to the above, any act used to take advantage of other users is considered a violation of our Community Guidelines.
  
  
• Respect our Discord: We adhere to Discord’s Community Guidelines in order to protect our users and keep our platform safe. We have a zero-tolerance policy of any harassment or retaliation in our Whatnot Discord channels. Negative comments using Whatnot’s name and other sellers will not be tolerated and you will be removed from the Whatnot Discord channels. User complaints (for both buyers and sellers) should be sent into trustandsafety@whatnot.com, not our Discord. Urgent reports for violations can be sent to the Trust & Safety Discord (@whatnot-trustandsafety). Those who violate these policies or abuse our Discord will be subject to removal from Whatnot’s Discord and further investigated for temporary or permanent banning from the Whatnot platform.

Guidelines for buyers:

• No Chargebacks: All bids are binding and all sales are final. If there is an issue with your purchase, please contact support. Buyers submitting payment disputes may be permanently banned from the platform.
• Age Restrictions: You must be at least 18 years old in order to create an account or use the app.

If you have any questions, please click here to reach out to our Support team and we will be happy to help!