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Dash/Process

Regulated products

Case by case

Vape, e-cigarettes and tobacco payment processing

Online nicotine sales carry age-verification duties, PACT Act registration and shipping restrictions most acquirers would rather not police. Our acquiring partners write it against the compliance evidence, not the category label.

Commonly assigned MCC

5993 · 5999

The category actually assigned is set at boarding and can differ from these.

Reviewed

The short version

Nicotine is one of the few verticals where the compliance burden is federal, state and carrier-level at once. The PACT Act brought e-cigarettes into a registration and reporting regime built for cigarettes, and the major parcel carriers stopped accepting consumer nicotine shipments entirely.

Acquirers price that as restricted because the failure modes are regulatory rather than financial. A merchant with a spotless chargeback ratio is still a problem if age verification is cosmetic.

What is actually being priced

What underwriting is looking at.

Age verification has to be real

A tick-box confirming the buyer is 21 is not age verification. Underwriting looks for a third-party check against a data source at checkout.

PACT Act registration is checked

Federal and state registration, plus the monthly reporting obligation, forms part of the file. Not being registered is a decline, not a condition.

Shipping is restricted at the carrier

The major carriers do not move consumer nicotine. Acquirers want to see which compliant carrier you actually use.

What their lists say

Stripe, Square and PayPal on vape & tobacco.

Their own published policies, quoted verbatim and dated, next to where the category stands with our acquiring partners.

Stripe

Restricted · approval required

“Tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, and e-liquid sold in accordance with applicable law”

Square

Prohibited

“internet/mail order/telephone order of age restricted products (e.g., tobacco)”

Remote sale is what the list names; in-person is not addressed here.

PayPal

Restricted · approval required

“Non-cigarette tobacco products, e-cigarettes, cigars”

Cigarettes themselves are listed as prohibited.

Dash Process

Case by case

Standard program for compliant sellers; a specialist acquirer where the product mix requires it.

What we ask for
All twenty categories, with sources

In the product

What your application looks like from your side.

The same five stages we publish on the site, a named contact, and the document list for vape & tobacco in one place — received, requested, or not needed.

How it works
Meridian Botanicals/Application
Sandbox
  1. Apply
  2. Underwriting
  3. Approve
  4. Integrate
  5. Live

Underwriting in progress

Acquiring review · Vape, e-cigarettes and tobacco program · MCC 5993

In review

Documents · 3 of 4 received

  • PACT Act registration evidence, federal and per stateReceived
  • Your age-verification vendor and where it fires in checkoutReceived
  • Your shipping carrier and restricted-state logicReceived
  • Product catalog including nicotine strengthsRequested
Illustrative · figures are fictional, not a quote

What we put in place

  • A standard acquiring program for compliant nicotine sellers; a specialist acquirer where the product mix requires it
  • Age-verification vendor integration at checkout
  • Gateway rules that block shipping to restricted states
  • Chargeback representment tuned to age-restricted disputes

What underwriting will ask you for

Assemble these before you apply anywhere. The list does not get shorter by waiting, and having it ready is the single biggest thing you control about how long this takes.

  • PACT Act registration evidence, federal and per state
  • Your age-verification vendor and where it fires in checkout
  • Your shipping carrier and restricted-state logic
  • Product catalog including nicotine strengths
Why each document is on the list

Questions

About vape & tobacco.

Yes, for sellers who comply with it: age verification at checkout, adult-signature delivery, state registrations and the tax filings the Act requires. Underwriting reviews the evidence of each. A seller without an age-verification vendor is not ready to apply.

On this account

What an account in this vertical usually runs on.

Also in regulated products

Next

Firearms and ammunition

Tell us about your vape & tobacco business.

We will tell you which of our acquiring partners writes it and what your file needs before it goes anywhere.

Get approvedAsk a questionor call (347) 594-9686