As a payments processor, SumUp is responsible for transferring money between people (aka our merchants and their customers). Therefore, we’re obligated to comply with all financially regulated institution rules and requirements. These rules include the types of businesses we support and how we work with them. This article provides an overview of our process, but for a comprehensive list of requirements, you can always refer to our Terms & Conditions.

Why are some businesses unsupported?

In order to abide by our requirements, there are certain types of businesses and products that we aren’t able to support. These requirements are in place for the safety and security of both SumUp and the merchants within our network. Some examples of unsupported businesses include: 

  • Restricted Industries: As a regulated entity, we operate under strict requirements imposed by financial regulators, the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard and American Express) and our acquiring banks. It’s because of these external requirements that some industries cannot currently be supported through SumUp. These industries include age-restricted products or services, like tobacco and cigarettes, among others

  • Restricted Transactions: SumUp is designed to support immediate business transactions, not future businesses (i.e. if the delay between processing a transaction and delivering the product/service is more than seven days) or person-to-person transfers (e.g. intracompany payments, cash advances, etc.). Person-to-person transfers also include transactions made with a card belonging to the SumUp account owner (or family member). We do allow for $1.00 test transactions, but transactions beyond that amount will be considered self-funding and aren’t allowed.

  • Illegal Businesses: Like all companies, we’re required to comply with all state and federal laws. Therefore, if there’s a product, service, business or other activity that’s illegal, it cannot be sold or conducted through SumUp. For example, because neither online gambling or marijuana products are legal at the federal level, we don’t allow merchants to host online gambling or sell marijuana using SumUp.

Please keep in mind that federal law also requires all financial institutions, including SumUp, to verify the information provided by each person who opens an account. We also regularly monitor transactions for irregular activity to make sure that all transactions comply with our Terms & Conditions. This means that on occasion, you may be asked to share documentation to verify your business account or activity. Accounts can be suspended until the information is verified, so the sooner you can get us the requested documentation, the sooner we can complete the review. 

Why do these regulations matter?

When customers choose to shop with a business, they’re trusting that business to deliver a superior product or experience—and the same goes with SumUp. Our merchants have to be able to trust that SumUp is a safe platform for their business to process payments. Therefore, we’ll always take the necessary steps to protect our business, because this also protects our merchants and their businesses. 

There are rare situations in which our system flags specific accounts to be closed based on the rules and regulations of our financial industry partners. However, we’re not legally allowed to share specific information about why an account is closed. Unfortunately, once we receive the mandate to close an account, it’s out of our hands. We know this can be frustrating, but these restrictions are in place to protect our global network of merchants.

This rigorous approach also applies to the data we collect through our products. All data accessed by our SumUp Card Readers is encrypted instantly and sent securely to our servers. No matter if merchants are using a public or private internet connection, their data is safe. Additionally, all SumUp software and hardware meets—and in many cases exceeds—the strict security standards outlined by the PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). 

You can learn more about our Security policies here

Questions?

We’re dedicated to growing and evolving our business in line with what our community needs. If you have any questions about our Terms & Conditions, our merchant review process, or any other topics mentioned above, please reach out to us.