WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy

WhatsApp Business Services (as defined in the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service), enable rich, conversational experiences between businesses and WhatsApp users. Creating valuable experiences for users relies on the compliance of businesses with the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy below. By using our products, businesses agree to the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines and the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service.

The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy defines what is and isn't allowed when using the WhatsApp Business Services. If content or actions violate our terms or policies, we may limit or remove your access to WhatsApp Business Services.

This policy, along with the WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines and the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service, govern your use of the WhatsApp Business Services including those listed below:

• The WhatsApp Business App
• The WhatsApp Business Platform
• Other WhatsApp Business offerings or features that we may provide to you in the future.

• Follow any guidelines and instructions in technical and product documentation.
• Maintain a WhatsApp Business profile with customer support contact information and one or more of the following: email address, website address, and/or telephone number. Keep all information accurate and up-to-date. You must not impersonate another business or otherwise mislead customers as to the nature of your business.
• Do not impersonate another business or otherwise mislead customers as to the nature of your business.
  • You may not use the WhatsApp Business Services to impersonate another business or entity, misrepresent your affiliation with a business or entity or otherwise mislead customers as to the nature of your business or activity on our products. We may consider your account to be violating the Business Messaging Policy, the WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines, and the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service if you pretend to take on someone else’s name, brand, or speak in the voice of another business or entity without permission.
• You may only contact people on WhatsApp if: (a) they have given you their mobile phone number; and (b) you have received opt-in permission from the recipient confirming that they wish to receive subsequent messages or calls from you.
  • You are solely responsible for determining the method of opt-in, that you have obtained opt-in in a manner that complies with laws applicable to your communications, and that you have otherwise provided notices and obtained permissions that are required under applicable law. To help ensure a strong user experience, review the best practices suggested below.
• You must respect all requests (either on or off WhatsApp) by a person to block, discontinue, or otherwise opt out of communications from you via WhatsApp, including removing that person from your contacts list. Do not confuse, deceive, defraud, mislead, spam, or surprise people with your communications.
• If you believe a WhatsApp account is infringing your intellectual property rights, please consult this page.

• You may only initiate conversations using an approved Message Template (as defined in our documentation). Any Message Template must comply with our terms and these policies, and only be used for its designated purpose. We have the right to review, approve, pause and reject any Message Template at any time.
• You may reply to a user message without use of a Message Template as long as it's within 24 hours of the last user message. Conversations initiated by users open once the first business reply message is delivered. Outside the 24-hour customer service window, you may only send messages via approved Message Templates.
• Standard pricing applies for all conversation categories.
• You may use automation when responding during the 24-hour window, but must also have available prompt, clear, and direct escalation paths. These escalation paths include:
  • In-Chat Human Agent transfer
  • Phone number
  • Email
  • Web support (on the business website)
  • In-store visits (ex: visit retail store, bank branch), or
  • Support form

• You are responsible for and must secure all necessary notices, permissions, and consents to collect, use, and share people's content and information, including maintaining a published privacy policy, and otherwise complying with applicable law.
• Don't use any data obtained from us about a person you message within WhatsApp, other than the content of message threads, for any purpose other than as reasonably necessary to support messaging with that person.
• Don't share or ask people to share full length individual payment card numbers, financial account numbers, personal ID card numbers, or other sensitive identifiers.
• Don't use WhatsApp for telemedicine or to send or request any health related information, if applicable regulations prohibit distribution of such information to systems that do not meet heightened requirements to handle health related information.
• You may not forward or otherwise share information from a customer chat with any other customer.

• We prohibit organizations and/or individuals who have been deemed to be engaged in terrorist or organized criminal activity from using the WhatsApp Business Services.
• We prohibit the use of the WhatsApp Business Services to facilitate or organize criminal activity, including exploiting or causing physical, financial, or other harm to people, businesses, or animals.
• We prohibit the use of the WhatsApp Business Services for operating, buying, selling, promoting, or otherwise facilitating the exchange of illegal products or services.
• We prohibit use of the WhatsApp Business Services for buying, selling, promoting, or otherwise facilitating the exchange of certain regulated or restricted goods and services listed below, as determined in our sole discretion. Please refer to Section 5 Further Guidance on Regulated Verticals for limited exceptions, subject to specific requirements, for promoting specific regulated or restricted goods and services (“Regulated Verticals”).
  • Firearms
  • Alcohol and tobacco
  • Drugs, whether prescription, recreational, or otherwise
  • Medical and healthcare products
  • Endangered species (wildlife and plants)
  • Live non-endangered animals excluding livestock
  • Hazardous goods and materials
  • Real, virtual, or fake currency, including ICOs and binary options
  • Body parts or fluids
  • Business models, goods, items, or services that we determine may be or are fraudulent, misleading, offensive, or deceptive, or may be or are exploitative, inappropriate, or exert undue pressure on targeted groups
  • Real Money Gambling and Gaming (Online Gambling and Gaming is a subset of Real Money Gambling and Gaming. See Section 5 and Section 6 for limited exceptions.)
  • Adult products and services
  • Dating services
  • Multi-level marketing
  • Payday loans, paycheck advances, peer-to-peer lending, debt collection, and bail bonds
    
    These prohibitions apply irrespective of the global or local licenses, registrations, or other approvals your business may hold.
• Organizations must not wrongfully discriminate or suggest a preference for or against people because of a personal characteristic, included but not limited to, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, citizenship, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family status, marital status, disability, or medical or genetic condition. Organizations must comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination.
• Messages must not contain offensive content, for example sexually explicit materials or nudity, determined at our sole discretion.
• Organizations that primarily publish news content must be registered as a News Page through Facebook.
• If you use Catalogs, or provide any other commerce experiences to sell or otherwise facilitate the exchange of goods or services prohibited by the Meta Commerce Policy, then we may prohibit you from using some or all of the WhatsApp Business Services.

To message users to promote online gambling and gaming (a subset of real money gambling and gaming), organizations will need to:

• Request permission from Meta Platforms, Inc. using this application form. Note that businesses can only apply to message people in certain countries.
• Provide evidence that the online gambling and gaming activities are appropriately licensed by a regulator, or otherwise established as lawful in the countries listed in Section 5 that the business wants to send messages to.

We define online gambling and gaming as any product or service where anything of monetary value is included as part of entry or prize. Monetary value includes, but is not limited to, cash or digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Online gambling and gaming activities include:

• All forms of online gambling. Some common types of gambling include betting, lotteries, raffles, casino games, fantasy sports, bingo, poker, skill game tournaments, and sweepstakes.
• Games where anything of monetary value is part of entry, and games where anything of monetary value is part of the prize. This includes games that require purchases to continue gameplay or to provide an advantage in winning prizes (in cases where the prize is of monetary value).
• Promotions for online gambling or games, even if there is no opportunity to gamble or game directly within the WhatsApp chat.

The following activities do not require permission from Meta to message on the WhatsApp Business Platform. However, organizations engaged in these activities must comply with all applicable local laws.

• Physical, real money gambling activity, or establishments like “brick and mortar” casinos, entertainment events at casinos, or the streaming of offline poker tournaments.
• State or government lotteries, as long as the business is directly or exclusively responsible for running the lottery.
• Prize promotions that involve purchasing a product at the usual retail price, so long as online gambling isn’t the primary business model of the business or any featured brand.
• Entirely free-to-play games.

• We may limit or remove your access to or use of the WhatsApp Business Services if you receive significant amounts of negative feedback, cause harm to WhatsApp or our users, violate or encourage others to violate our terms or policies, or to maintain a high quality experience on WhatsApp, as determined by us in our sole discretion.
• Driving high quality conversations between people and businesses is a top priority. People can block or report businesses and our systems will limit the amount of messages a business can send or calls a business can initiate if the business' quality tier is low for a sustained period of time.
• If you use or operate a service which utilizes WhatsApp in violation of our terms or policies, such as messaging people at scale in an unauthorized manner, we have the right to limit or remove your access to WhatsApp Business Services.
• WhatsApp may update this WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy ("Change") without notice (unless such notice is required by law); by continuing to use the WhatsApp Business Services after such Change, you consent to such Change.
• If we terminate your account for violations of the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service, the Business Messaging Policy, or the WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines, we may prohibit you and your organization from all future use of WhatsApp products and services.
• WhatsApp may use both technology and human review teams to detect and review reported messages and unencrypted account, group, and business profile information for potential violations.

Additional information about how we detect violations of our terms and policies is available in the WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines.

To learn more on our Platform Enforcement processes, please visit the WhatsApp Business Platform Policy Enforcement.

Users should expect the messages and calls they receive. You can set this expectation by:

• Obtaining an opt-in that encompasses the different categories of messages that you will send (ex: order updates, relevant offers, product recommendations, etc.)
• Obtaining a separate opt-in to initiate a call to a user.
• Obtaining separate opt-in by specific message category.
  • This mitigates the risk that users will block your business because they receive unsolicited messages.
• Provide clear instructions for how people can opt out of receiving specific categories of messages or calls, and honor these requests.
• Ensure your opt-in and opt-out flows are clear and intuitive for users.
• Clearly communicate the value of receiving this information.

We may also reactively evaluate a business' opt-in flows, including review of user feedback, to flag policy violations and develop additional types of enforcement over time.

To maintain high quality conversations on the WhatsApp Business Services, we enforce on WhatsApp Business Accounts that violate the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines, or WhatsApp Business Terms of Service.

If you believe your account has not violated our policies or terms, please consult the following resources for more information on how to appeal:

• For more information on enforcement for the WhatsApp Business App, including how to appeal, please review the Business Help Center page.
• For more information on enforcement for the WhatsApp Business Platform, including how to appeal, please review Policy Enforcement - WhatsApp Business Platform.
• For more information on banned accounts, please refer to this article in our Help Center.