Authorize.net enforces TOS based on Dollar Volumes?

[john777]

Authorize.net does not allow internet tobacco sales, right?    http://www.authorize.net/company/terms/

2. LAWFUL USE.

You agree that You will not at any time conduct Your business in any manner that directly or indirectly offers, sells, leases, licenses or displays, delivers, advertises, recommends, or promotes any product(s), service(s), data, information, image(s), text and/or any content which:

1. is unlawful or violates any applicable local, state, federal, national or international law, statute, ordinance, or regulation including, without limitation, Credit Card Association rules, consumer protection law, Internet tobacco sales, firearm sales, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false advertising.

I'm really curious how there are a ton of companies online selling tobacco using Authorize.net when its against their TOS.  I'm wondering what Auth.net CEO is getting a kickback from these companies.   I asked Auth.net in March about it and yet all the companies in question are still using Auth.net for internet tobacco. 

Here are a few examples:

http://www.miamicigarshop.com

http://verify.authorize.net/anetseal/?pid=d945bf96-481e-49e8-a93b-fd4718232f17&rurl=http%3A//www.mia...

http://www.tophatcigar.com/
http://verify.authorize.net/anetseal/?pid=d62a6ca0-b6be-4f59-8cd7-bf476c7a4dd8&rurl=http%3A//www.top...

http://www.cigar5packs.com/cigar-brand-under-40-dollars/garcia-y-vega-packs-350.html
http://verify.authorize.net/anetseal/?pid=be25673a-3834-4891-aff1-3e2541c28f0f&rurl=http%3A//www.cig...

[martinb0614]

John 777

Look we do not need for this to get ugly ok neither can you afford a lawyer to go against such a company like Authorize.net or the other Tobacco Stores. If you want money to stay quiet why dont you contact the tobacco stores and try to scare them.

And yes I used to have an online store for the sales of tobacco and yes I used to used Aurthorize.net but later I switch to a different of shore payment gateway since also not that many merchant either will back you up. So now we have everything offshore since not that many people will back up the sale of tobacco or any adult products.

If you mad because you couldnt get an account with Authorize.net let me know and I will send you the information about offshore merchants and payment gateways but there is not need for you to keep up with this.

For that you should also sue Paypal as well for now allowing the sale of tobacco.

[john777]

Dear Michelle,

Thank you for your reply.   Just for the record, I did contact the abuse department on several occasions withs my questions and concerns.   All of which was back in the early part of this year.   While I understand that it takes some time to look into such matters, it does not take 6 MONTHS to handle a TOS violation.

Wasting my time to call (or email) the abuse department again just results in the same "that is correct, we do not allow accounts that sell tobacco online".     However the abuse department will not offer any explaination for allowing a bunch of others to use their service in violation of their TOS.    A "terms of service" is to eliminate any gray area and provide equal (and fair) terms and conditions for customers.  

If an Authorize.net customer is selling body parts or perhaps cocaine I doubt that the account would remain active (and as a certified merchant) for very long.    However after 6 months of being notified of several of their customers using their service to sell tobacco online, in violation of their posted TOS, they still ignore the situation.

For posting here on the forum, its an OFF TOPIC area and in the community feedback.   Developers of websites need to know that building websites to comply with Authorize.net TOS is a waste of time when they don't appear to follow the TOS themselves.   Likewise, I'm upset over the run around from Authorize.net and I will surely continue to post in every public venue possible about the matter until the "abuse" department either changes the TOS or enforces it.

[zshaw]

Months have passed and the aforementioned sites are still using authorize.net to sell tobacco products. Regardless of how you're handling these specific companies, can you comment as to why some tobacco retailers are allowed to use authorize.net and others are not? Doing so would prevent the PR nightmare of being accused of providing preferential treatment as mentioned in this discussion.

As a tobacco retailer considering moving a considerable amount of business to authorize.net, I am very confused. Incidentally, this page is one of the first that comes up when Googling "authorize.net tobacco"

[timswope]

Has anything ever been done about this because I have a similar problem i have tried to report through the proper channels and have gotten absolutely nowhere.

6-7 producers of scat content are having their videos stolen, re-watermarked and then sold on thenewgirlspooping.com which uses Authroize.net to process the transactions.

3 years this has been going and and for close to a year I've been trying to get it stopped but CyberSource/Authorize,net does not seem to care.