Our Research Use Only policy

NoRamp onboards RUO suppliers whose customers are, in fact, researchers: institutional buyers, credentialed laboratories, contract research organizations and universities. If a storefront looks like a consumer brand, ships to individuals at residential addresses, or carries any marketing that implies human use, we decline. Without exception.

We use Stripe's Prohibited and Restricted Businesses policy, the Visa and Mastercard brand-protection programs, and FDA and FTC guidance as our baseline, and we apply them more strictly than the baseline requires. If you could not pass Stripe's review, you will not pass ours. If you were ever terminated by another processor, you will not pass ours either.

Most businesses that apply to us in this category are declined. That is the intended outcome of this policy, not a side effect of it.

There is a legitimate, well-regulated market for research-grade reference materials. Universities, biotech labs and contract research organizations buy these compounds every day for genuine research, and they deserve a payments partner that does not lump them in with the much larger gray market.

That gray market, consumer-facing storefronts selling the same molecules under a thin “Research Use Only” label while marketing them for human use, is something we will not touch. Processing for that segment is not only a regulatory and card-network risk; it is a real harm to people who do not know what they are buying or how to use it safely. We have no interest in being part of it, and we have no interest in helping anyone disguise it.

Being strict protects our legitimate merchants. Every gray-market operator a processor tolerates raises the cost, the scrutiny and the chargeback exposure for every honest supplier in the category. We would rather turn away ten applicants than let one of them endanger the merchants who are doing this right.

Each of the following is grounds for immediate rejection of an application. For a live merchant, each is grounds for immediate suspension and termination, with the consequences described in the next section. This list is not exhaustive, and we do not accept “it is only on one page” or “that is industry standard” as a defense.

• Prescription compounds, under any name. Listing, selling or referencing an approved or investigational prescription drug, including every GLP-1, GIP or incretin-class compound (semaglutide, tirzepatide, retatrutide, cagrilintide and their analogs), whether spelled out, abbreviated, coded, misspelled on purpose or hidden in a URL, an image, alt text or a product code.
• Human-use positioning. Dosing, administration, reconstitution or cycle guidance; weight-loss, anti-aging, performance, longevity, recovery, sexual-health, hair-growth or any other physiological claim; mechanism-of-action copy written for a buyer rather than a laboratory; and any language that presumes a person will take the product.
• Consumer formats and consumer selling. Capsules, strips, sprays, gummies, pre-filled pens, supplement-style labels, “stacks,” protocols, weeks-of-supply bundles, subscriptions, discount codes, loyalty programs, reviews, testimonials, before-and-after content, influencer or affiliate marketing, and advertising aimed at consumers.
• Injection supplies sold alongside compounds. Bacteriostatic water, syringes, needles, alcohol swabs or reconstitution kits offered, bundled, upsold or cross-linked with research compounds.
• Sales to individuals. Shipping to residential addresses, repeat individual buyers, order patterns inconsistent with institutional research supply, or the absence of buyer verification, purchase-order workflows and a required research-use acknowledgment at checkout.
• Clinic, patient or telehealth framing. Any reference to patients, practitioners, prescriptions, consultations, “physician use,” or a referral path to a prescriber.
• Disclaimers that only exist for the crawler. Research-use notices injected by script, hidden behind a cookie banner, drawn inside an image, or otherwise absent from the HTML the server actually sends. A notice a reviewer cannot see is not a notice.
• Misrepresentation of any kind. A storefront that differs from the one you applied with, undisclosed domains, mirror sites or brands, transaction laundering or load balancing for another business, a misstated business category, or omitting a prior processor termination, chargeback program placement or regulatory action from your application.
• Any regulatory or network history. Prior action or correspondence from the FDA, FTC, DEA, a state attorney general or an international equivalent; prior termination by Stripe or any other processor or acquirer; prior placement on a card-network or acquirer watch list; prior placement in a chargeback monitoring program.

We do not issue warnings for the conduct listed above. When we find it, we act the same day:

• Immediate suspension and termination. Processing stops the moment the violation is confirmed. Terminated merchants are not reinstated, re-boarded under a new name, or referred elsewhere.
• Funds are held. Settled and unsettled funds are held for up to 180 days, as the card networks permit, to cover refunds, chargebacks, assessments and investigation costs. Rolling reserves are retained for the same purpose.
• Every fine passes through, in full. Any fine, assessment, penalty or fee levied by a card network, acquiring bank or processor because of a merchant's conduct is the merchant's to pay. Mastercard's brand-protection program and Visa's integrity program assess fines that routinely reach tens of thousands of dollars per violation and can reach hundreds of thousands. We recover those amounts, plus our investigation and legal costs, from held funds and reserves, and we pursue the balance directly from the merchant and its principals under the merchant agreement.
• We report. We cooperate fully with our processors, acquiring banks and the card networks, including identifying the merchant and its principals for network termination lists. Where a violation involves products sold for human use, we cooperate with the FDA, the FTC and state regulators. We do not shield a merchant from a regulator, and we do not tip a merchant off.

None of this is a negotiating position. It is what the networks and our banking partners require of us, and it is what we would do regardless.

For the minority of applicants who pass an initial review, our underwriting examines:

• Your customer mix: what share of revenue comes from institutional buyers, .edu domains or credentialed labs, and how that is verified at the point of sale.
• Your buyer verification workflow: how you confirm that a buyer is a researcher before you accept an order, and what you do when they are not.
• Your marketing channels: ad placements, content strategy, organic reach and audience composition.
• Your product catalog and how it is presented, including photography, language, label artwork, URLs, metadata and the absence of human-use indicators. We scan every public page, not just the ones you show us.
• Your operational history: chargeback rate, refund patterns, prior processor relationships, principals and beneficial owners, and any regulatory correspondence.

Onboarding is not the end of the review. We scan merchant storefronts, marketing channels and order patterns continuously, including nightly automated compliance scans of every live site and periodic human review. A storefront that passed on day one and drifts toward consumer sales is treated exactly like a storefront that never passed. Incidental presentation issues are raised with the merchant and must be corrected on a stated deadline. Anything on the list above is handled as described above, with no deadline and no second chance.

If your business genuinely serves researchers and you can show it, with institutional buyers, credentialed accounts, clean marketing and no human-use positioning, we would like to talk. The bar is high on purpose. Our existing merchants, our banking partners and the regulators who oversee this category are the reason.

If you believe a NoRamp merchant is violating this policy, tell us. We investigate every report.

Every page below is consistent with this policy. Where there is any doubt, this page controls.

• The strictest RUO payment processor in the world
• Why we run zero tolerance
• Who we decline
• Does Stripe allow peptide sales?
• GLP-1 peptides are prohibited
• Terminated by another processor?
• How the application review works
• The storefront standard
• What happens when a merchant crosses the line
• What legitimate research supply looks like
• RUO payment processing FAQ