Guidance on Regulated Verticals

We allow the use of the Whatsapp Business Service for messaging about the Regulated Verticals, in limited countries, and pursuant to applicable law.

Additional Requirements for messaging about Regulated Verticals -

• You must ensure - through technical and organizational measures - that messages are gated per legal age, geographic requirements, and regulatory requirements.

• You must comply with all applicable laws, including but not limited to local laws and industry codes.

• You must not use the WhatsApp Business Platform to send messages about Regulated Verticals outside of the allowed countries.

• You must ensure that you have all required licenses, notices, permits and registrations.

• You must immediately stop sending messages to users in the allowed country if your required license expires, is modified, or is terminated.

• WhatsApp Business messaging that promotes alcohol must comply with all applicable local laws, required or established industry codes, guidelines, licenses, and must comply with age and country requirements consistent with applicable local laws.

• Messaging about any Regulated Vertical using the WhatsApp Business Platform may not be sent to people under 18 years of age.

• Within Real Money Gambling and Gaming, if your country/region prohibits certain activities such as gambling, games of chance, and/or any other related activities (i.e. India), then your use of business messaging should not include such prohibited activities and should only include those activities which are lawful.

Exceptions to Regulated Verticals – Allowed Countries

WhatsApp Business messaging that promotes for online gambling and gaming, Over-the-Counter Drugs, alcohal must follow all local laws, industry codes, guidelines, and licensing requirements. Messages cannot be sent to anyone under 18 years old and must meet the age and country-specific rules of the applicable laws.

To view the complete list of regulated verticals and allowed countries, please refer to the document.

Note - If your country is listed under your preferred category, you must follow the guidelines and fill the application form for verification first, after the verification by facebook only, you will be able to send whatsapp under preferred category.

Additional Requirements for Messages Promoting Online Gambling and Gaming using the WhatsApp Business Platform

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 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.

• 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.