While we encourage Whatnot sellers to offer a diversity of items on the platform, there are some items that Whatnot cannot support at this time, or that have to follow certain requirements to be sold on Whatnot. See our Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy to understand what you can and can’t sell on Whatnot.

Respecting the intellectual property of others is important to maintain a fair and creative environment. You may not sell any form of counterfeit item on Whatnot, nor may you use another’s IP, such as images or video, without authorization. For more on how we approach counterfeit items and intellectual property issues on Whatnot, please see our Counterfeit Policy and our Intellectual Property Policy. 

Each seller is responsible for complying with all applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations, both in their and their buyers’ jurisdictions (including tax, consumer protection, data privacy, and intellectual property laws). Whatnot is unable to provide sellers with legal advice — we encourage sellers to speak to their own legal advisor(s) if they have questions about how laws and regulations may apply to their business. 

In order for buyers to make an informed purchase, you must honestly describe the condition of your items. This includes disclosing any flaws and showing the item on all sides. In addition to corrective action, sellers may be billed back for items that are misrepresented.

We strictly prohibit gambling activities and purchase-based prizes. See our Gambling, purchase-based prizes policy to learn more.

In order to maintain a trustworthy buying experience, we have requirements for the sale and auction of card breaks. To understand Whatnot’s rules and requirements for these selling formats, check out our Breaks policy. 

We have requirements for how to sell Surprise Product and sets of Surprise Product. For more detail, see our policy.

To ensure Whatnot follows local laws, sellers may not operate in unsupported countries . Sellers must operate out of the country they registered with in their seller application. See our list of supported countries for more information.

Because we cannot track the delivery of items sent to third-party grading services, we do not allow sellers to offer grading services on Whatnot. We allow some exceptions for pre-approved livestreams hosted at live comic book events.

When listing items on Whatnot, please review and follow Whatnot’s Listing Guidelines.

Selling in certain categories requires some additional know-how to ensure everyone has a good time — sellers and buyers alike. That's why we have specific access requirements for selling in the following categories:

• Luxury Bags & Accessories
• Mystery Games in Sneakers & Streetwear and Luxury Bags & Accessories

Sellers interested in selling in the above categories should review Gating at Whatnot to understand the category-specific requirements. Selling in a gated category without authorization will lead to corrective action.

Each Whatnot category has its own unique community, common practices, and requirements. For some of our most popular or specialized categories, we have the following tailored expectations for sellers:  

• Luxury Goods Best Practices
• Coins and Money Best Practices
• Plants Best Practices
• Electronics Best Practices
• Card Breaks Policy Compliant Set-ups

To keep Whatnot shows engaging and entertaining, we do not allow inactive shows on Whatnot. When you’re hosting a show, we require you to be actively engaged during the entirety of the show, whether displaying and selling products, answering questions in the chat, or in conversation with your co-host or users in chat. Inactive shows include the following, even if Buy It Now items or a giveaway is pinned to the stream: 

• Shows displaying a blank, still, or frozen screen for an extended period of time 
• Shows without any person present on screen for extended periods of time

To ensure sellers remain in control of their show, and to keep Whatnot users and others safe, we do not permit reckless and dangerous activity on shows, and we will end shows if individuals become unable to manage their show. This includes activities that could seriously injure a user, put a user's life in danger, inspire others to participate in harmful physical behavior, or otherwise lose control of their show. This includes:

• Life-endangering pranks or stunts, including the dangerous use of props or weapons
• Incapacitation from alcohol or drug use
• Operating a vehicle while streaming 
• A user losing control of their show

While we want our users to have fun and express themselves, this behavior can put both the show host and others at risk of harm.

When creating a show, all sellers must toggle on the “sensitive content” toggle if they anticipate that their show will contain repeated profanity, display items with permitted nudity (e.g., comics), or if their show will otherwise be sensitive for certain audiences. See also our Adult and Explicit Items Policy for more on what content or items are permitted on Whatnot. 

To ensure the quality of items sold on Whatnot, you (and your co-hosts) may not use smoke products, including cigarettes and vaporizers, while in a live show and in proximity to inventory. This includes auction items, sold items, and giveaways.

In order to maintain a trustworthy marketplace where people feel secure and protected in their purchases, Whatnot will reimburse buyers at the market price of a high-value hit card if it is missing, and bill back the seller. For more information, check out Whatnot’s High Value Loss Reimbursement Policy. 

All bids on Whatnot are binding. While buyers can request order cancellations in the app, sellers are entitled to decline such requests. Buyers with high rates of cancellations or refunds will receive penalties against their account and may be denied refunds in the future. Similarly, sellers are not permitted to cancel orders due to purchase price. If there's a problem with an order, please contact our support team. Buyers submitting payment disputes for reasons other than credit card theft may be subject to corrective action.

Hateful conduct and harassment erode trust, disrupt communities, and discourage participation. To ensure a safe and respectful environment for everyone, we strictly prohibit hateful behavior and harassment, including sexual harassment. Learn more about what we consider hate and harassment.

To foster the safety of the entire Whatnot community, we don’t allow content that glorifies, promotes, or encourages self-harm. Self harm includes suicide, self-injury, and promoting eating disorders or other self-destructive activity. While we want our users to be comfortable expressing themselves, content glorifying, promoting, or encouraging self-harm puts both you and others at risk of harm.

We want our users to express themselves, while still ensuring others aren’t shocked or negatively impacted, especially considering the diversity of ages and cultural backgrounds on Whatnot. Please see our Explicit Content Policy which sets out Whatnot’s restrictions on both Sexual content and nudity and Graphic or obscene content.

Sharing someone’s private details without their consent, such as their email, phone number, or home address, can be upsetting or even dangerous. That's why we don't allow the sharing of another user's personal info without their approval. For example, we don’t allow the following:

• Sharing a buyer’s address without their permission while hosting a show
• Sharing a buyer’s email address in chat without their permission

Illegal, harmful, and violent content and activities are not allowed on Whatnot, and, as needed, we report violating activities to law enforcement organizations. We do not allow the following:

• Adult sexual violence and exploitation
• Violence or credible threats of violence 
• Promotion of terrorist organizations

Whatnot has zero tolerance for any activity or interactions that endanger the safety and wellbeing of minors. This includes the following:

• Child sexual exploitation, abuse, or grooming behaviors

• Minors engaging in sexually suggestive discussion or behaviors (including nudity), or other risky, dangerous or illegal behaviors
• Any activity, comment, item or display sexualizing minors, or otherwise encouraging the physical abuse of a minor, whether real or fictional 

Whatnot reports all illegal content or activity to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which works with international law enforcement agencies. 

To protect our community, we do not allow users who engage in deceptive account practices. This includes the following: 

• Fraudulent activity and scams, including filing fraudulent payment disputes
• Using stolen payment information 
• Phishing behavior 
• Bot activity; including bot bidding, or bot spam
• Impersonating others or deliberately misrepresenting your identity

If we are provided with verifiable evidence of off-platform coordination of abuse to occur on Whatnot, we may take action. 

Additionally, in rare instances, we may take action against individuals because of behavior off of Whatnot if the behavior poses a significant threat to the health of the Whatnot community or individuals. When evaluating these cases, we take into account the severity and timeframe of this behavior, and the likelihood of that behavior occurring on Whatnot. 

To maintain the integrity of our platform, we do not allow users who have been banned or suspended to use Whatnot with a different account, or otherwise circumvent our enforcement actions. If you think we made a mistake, please email us at trustandsafety@whatnot.com to appeal.

There are times when we may allow individuals to have their account reinstated. In evaluating cases, we look at many different factors, including severity of the user's past actions and how much time has passed since the violation.

Misinformation can negatively impact online communities. If content is found to be detrimental to our community on Whatnot, we reserve the right to remove it. This may include widely debunked content, such as misinformation promoting violent conspiracies, health-related misinformation, and hate-driven misinformation.

Accounts should be used only by the account owner. You may not sell or transfer your account to another user, nor may you sell or buy Whatnot features such as raids and follows, nor advertise the sale of Whatnot features.

In order to honor the protections we offer on Whatnot, transactions must be conducted through Whatnot. Any method of circumventing Whatnot’s platform fees is strictly prohibited. Sellers must exclusively process payments for items sold on Whatnot through the Whatnot platform, and under no circumstances accept or solicit off-platform transactions. Users may not redirect to purchases on another platform and may not use Whatnot to promote live shows on other platforms.

You must be over the age of 18 to have an account on Whatnot. 

Teens between the ages of 13 to 17 may use Whatnot if they follow the requirements that they operate only on an account owned by a parent or legal guardian aged 18 years or older, and only with a parent or guardian’s permission and supervision. Learn more about Whatnot’s requirements for teens. 

Individuals under 13 cannot use Whatnot. This policy applies even if a parent is present. Individuals under 13 may assist in the selling process, for example,  handing an item to a parent to run in an auction, but cannot operate the app or be the focal point of a stream. 

Sending repeated messages to other users can come across as spam and degrades the overall experience on Whatnot. Because of this, we don't allow users to repeatedly send the same unsolicited message to others. This includes, but isn't limited to:

• Sharing a link to your upcoming show with all of your Whatnot connections through direct message 
• Repeatedly sending promotional material to the same user

Your username and all profile content must comply with Whatnot’s policies. We won’t allow usernames or profile content containing content that is explicit, harassing, violent, hateful, impersonating, or that otherwise promotes illegal activity or violates our policies.

All actions and activities that occur on your account are your responsibility and will reflect on your account record. This includes conduct by guests, content featured or rebroadcast, and employees' streaming and fulfillment. In addition to taking action on the hosting account, we may take additional action on the accounts of guests, employees, and others involved in violating behavior.

To ensure sellers can trust all bids are authentic, Whatnot prohibits troll bids. Troll bids are excessively high or otherwise fake bids placed by buyers to disrupt the seller’s process. Violations of our troll bidding policy include a buyer placing an unrealistically high bid to deter other potential buyers, or a fake bid with no intention of purchasing.

To ensure buyers can trust all bids are authentic, Whatnot prohibits shill bids. Shill bids are bids placed by the seller, or a user related to a seller in order 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. Shill bidding may also violate laws in your jurisdiction. Whatnot monitors all bids and transactions and takes action on accounts suspected of shill bidding.

When running giveaways on Whatnot, sellers must use Whatnot’s Giveaway Feature, and follow all policies as set out in the Giveaways Overview. We strictly prohibit any form of automated or programmatic giveaway entry. All entries made by these methods will be voided, and your account access may be limited if found utilizing these methods.

When using the tipping feature, users must follow all rules set out in the Tips Terms and Conditions, including not using tips to circumvent otherwise applicable fees on Whatnot (which we need to run the app), or tips for content or services that are sexually explicit, or that otherwise violate Whatnot’s policies.

When participating in the referral program, users must not 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. For more information, see Whatnot’s Seller Referral Program.

In order to protect the integrity of our platform, we prohibit any abuse or manipulation of products or features on Whatnot. This includes abuse of our support processes, shipping pricing, paying for reviews, excessively rescheduling shows, deceptive manipulation of discovery or ranking (such as intentionally mistagging content, or excessively rescheduling shows), as well as abuse of specific features.