LINE Official Account Guidelines
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Introduction
1. LINE Official Account Guidelines
The LINE Official Account Guidelines (hereinafter referred to as "the Guidelines") are intended to explain the differences between the various types of accounts in LINE Official Account (hereinafter referred to as "the Service") provided by LY Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "the Company") to its customers, including "Unverified Accounts," available for use by any company, organization, or individual; "Verified Accounts" and "Premium Accounts," which are only available to customers who pass a screening process instituted by the Company; as well as details of the screening processes involved in establishing an account, and the rules and precautions for opening and operating an account, which are used in order to ensure the smooth usage of the Service by our customers.
These Guidelines apply, together with the LINE Official Account Terms and Conditions of Use (hereinafter referred to as the "Terms and Conditions of Use"), only to accounts designated as based in countries other than Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand in accordance with the criteria established by the Company.
In instances in which the Guidelines do not contain relevant information, the Terms and Conditions of Use will fundamentally apply. In instances in which the Guidelines contradict or otherwise contravene the Terms and Conditions of Use, the Guidelines will take priority.
LY Corporation Common Terms of Use
LINE Official Account Terms and Conditions of Use
2. Service Policy
LINE Official Account is a service designed to allow account-holding customers to use their official account to engage more effectively with LINE users.
Messages can be exchanged with—and a variety of information provided to—users who become "Friends" with a customer's LINE official account, allowing for the kind of communication that is regularly exchanged between actual friends.
At the same time, LINE is a communication platform used on a daily basis by a wide range of users across the age spectrum, from children to the elderly.
For this reason, the Company places tremendous focus on the following issues when considering the content distributed by LINE official accounts: "How do the recipients of this content (the users) feel about it?", "Is necessary information being provided to users in an appropriate format?", "Are users not being made to feel any discomfort?", and "Are all users able to use LINE safely and with peace of mind?"
The Guidelines in this document have been put in place in an effort on behalf of the Company to ensure that customers and users can build better "friendships" that will result in a richer and more rewarding LINE experience for all users.
Rules for Opening an Account
1. Account Types and Screening Process
1. Account Types
The Service offers customers two different account types: "Unverified Accounts," available for use by any company, organization, or individual; and “Premium Accounts," only available to those customers who pass a screening process instituted by the Company.
The Company has no responsibility to disclose the criteria for making an account into a Premium Account.
2. Customers Prohibited from Opening an Account
The Service will be unavailable for use by any customer deemed by the Company to belong to any of the below categories.
- Any company, organization, or individual providing a product or service which may be used for the purposes of criminal activity.
- Any company, organization, or individual engaged in illegal or criminal activity or that facilitates illegal or criminal activity.
- Any company, organization, or individual involved in the illegal or illicit sale or purchase of the personal details, registration details, usage history, and other related information of other individuals, or the mediation or agency thereof.
- Any company, organization, or individual committing acts in violation of laws and ordinances or standards of public order and decency, or which may be considered to be in violation of same.
- Any company, organization, or individual determined by the Company to have committed any prohibited acts established in Article 1８ of the LINE Official Account Terms of Use.
- Any company, organization, or individual determined by the Company to be inappropriate as customers of the Service for any other reason.
(This may include but is not restricted to companies, organizations, or individuals which may possibly confer any disadvantage to LINE users; companies, organizations, or individuals which may possibly adversely affect trust in the public image of the Company; and companies, organizations, or individuals which may possibly involve the Company in complaints, claims for damages, or other conflicts.)
3. Prohibited Industries, Businesses, Products, and Services
In accordance with the Company's policies, the Company may reject the opening of accounts, suspend accounts, or nullify contracts for the Service in the instance that it is determined that customers fall into any of the below categories, whether in whole or in part.
Customers are also asked to be aware that the below list is not exhaustive, and that the Service may also be declined or suspended in cases other than those listed below.
[Industry] Medical care
[Products/Services] Medical products
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Medical products that are as yet unapproved for use in Japan
- Private import agency for medical products
[Products/Services] Other medical services
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Recruitment of subjects for clinical trials
[Industry] Dating services
[Products/Services] Provision of opportunities or locations to meet dating partners
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Group dating event companies, speed-dating bars and lounges, matchmaking cafes, matchmaking bars, matchmaking parties, telephone dating, live chat services, internet-based matchmaking services (including online dating sites and apps)
[Industry] Adult entertainment
[Products/Services] Adult-oriented establishments and services
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Establishments offering sexual services
Examples: Soaplands, "fashion health," "delivery health," sexual-oriented cabarets, "happening bars," S&M clubs and bars, "host dispatch" businesses, "rejuvenation beauty treatment clinics," strip clubs, pornographic cinemas, ear-cleaning parlors
- Adult-oriented restaurants and bars
Example: Hostess bars
- Adult sex shops
Examples: Adult DVD stores, adult bookstores, stores selling sexual goods and other items
- Other related establishments and services
Examples: Men's beauty treatment clinics, women-only massage parlors, "high school girl" businesses, body-washing, or bed-sharing services
[Products/Services] Adult content
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Content including sexual depictions or references not considered appropriate for minors
Examples: Adult videos, DVDs, films, television programs and streaming video, books, magazines and comics, games, apps, websites and notice boards, etc.
[Products/Services] Other adult-related products or services
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Provision of information relating to adult stores or services
- Recruitment for staff providing sexual services, light sexual services, men's only beauty treatment services, etc.
- Sexual energy enhancement medication, aphrodisiacs, or any health food or cosmetics making reference to sexual acts or functionality, etc.
[Industry] Network businesses
[Products/Services] Information trading
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Inducing users to register for e-zines, purchase videos and DVDs, and attend seminars or the like, often through marketing strategies which promise moneymaking opportunities
[Products/Services] Self-development
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Inducing users to register for e-zines, purchase videos and DVDs, and attend seminars or the like, often through marketing strategies which promise simplicity of success
[Products/Services] Real money trading (RMT)
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Sites and services offering the exchange of virtual goods, including accounts, characters and virtual currency from applications and online games for real world currency
[Industry] Network marketing
[Products/Services] Pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, chain sales, network businesses
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Network marketing or other similar types of marketing schemes
- Inductions or introductions to pyramid schemes
[Products/Services] Fortune-telling marketing, "monitor-based" sales, etc.
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Marketing schemes designed to sell products through the exploitation of human uncertainty, unhappiness, and speculation
- Sales of products using illegal marketing methods
- Sales of products with unsound scientific evidence to support them
[Industry] Credit card currency conversion
[Products/Services] Credit card shopping limit cash conversion
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Services designed to convert credit card shopping limits, set to facilitate later payment for goods and services, into cash
[Industry] Gambling
[Products/Services] Casinos
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Casinos and online casino services in which winnings can be exchanged for cash (either in Japan or overseas)
[Products/Services] Other gambling services
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Illegal gambling services
[Industry] Personal information
[Products/Services] Sales of personal information
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Sales or brokerage of information that can be used to identify individuals, such as name, gender, and date of birth
[Industry] Counterfeit and piracy
[Products/Services] Counterfeit and pirated goods
[Instances in which promotion via LINE is prohibited]
- Sales of counterfeit, pirated, or unofficial goods relating to famous individuals, characters, or similar subjects
- Unapproved use of the Company's official characters
Rules for Account Operation
1. Content Prohibited from Distribution
Irrespective of account type, it is the responsibility of the customer to ensure that any content distributed from the account (including chats, LINE VOOM posts, and auto-replies) and details of the account settings do not involve any of the below activities which infringe upon Article 18 of the "Prohibited Acts" list in the LINE公式アカウント 利用規約 (LINE Official Account Terms and Conditions of Use).
- Activities that violate the law, court verdicts, resolutions, orders, or administrative measures that are legally binding.
- Illegal activities or activities that aid or encourage illegal activity.
- Activities that infringe intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, trademarks, patents, fame, privacy, and all other rights of the Company and/or a third party granted by the law or contract.
- Activities that may adversely affect public order or customs.
- Activities that benefit or collaborate with anti-social groups.
- Activities that use the Service as an advertising medium for a third party.
- Activities that lead to the misrepresentation of the Company and/or a third party, intentionally spread false information, or involve the display or dissemination of content unrelated to the operation and maintenance of the customer's business reported at the time of application.
- Activities that illegally or improperly lead to the collection, disclosure, or provision of a third party's personal information, registered information, user history, or other related information.
- Activities that post or transmit violent or sexual expressions; expressions that lead to discrimination by race, national origin, religion, gender, social status, family origin, or other criteria; expressions that induce or encourage suicide, self-injury, or drug abuse; or anti-social expressions that include anti-social content and lead to the discomfort of others.
- Activities that use the Service for the purpose of sexual conduct or obscene acts, use the Service for the purpose of meeting a person for sexual or romantic encounters, use the Service for the purpose of harassment or libelous attacks against other users, or use the Service for purposes other than the Service's main purpose.
- The distribution of content that may cause discomfort or inconvenience to users or third parties.
- Activities that interfere with the servers and/or network systems of the Service.
- Activities that interfere with the Company's operation of the Service or users' use of the Service.
- Activities that deliberately take advantage of defects of the Service.
- Activities that make unreasonable inquires and/or undue claims of the Company.
- The distribution of content which contravenes the LY Corporation Common Terms of Use.
- The distribution of content which contravenes the LINE Logo Usage Guidelines.
- Activities that aid or encourage any activity stated above.
- Other activities that are deemed by the Company to be inappropriate.
2. Penalties
Irrespective of account type, in the instance that it is determined by the Company that any content distributed from any account (including chats, messages, LINE VOOM posts, and auto-replies) or details of the account settings are inappropriate, or any activities have been conducted that violate the regulations stipulated on Page 9 ("Content Prohibited from Distribution") or Page 11 ("Operation Precautions"), the Company may impose any or all of the below penalties, or other penalties of similar type.
- Deletion of problematic content
- Suspension of the Service
- Annulment of the Service contract
The Company shall not be required in any instance to provide reasons for any penalties imposed.
3. Operation Precautions
Customers are required to respect all relevant laws and industry rules and standards in the operation of their accounts.
Customers are also required to respect the user-protection precautions on the following pages, which apply to the content distributed from all accounts (all functions, including messages, LINE VOOM posts, account pages, auto-replies, keyword replies, and rich menus), irrespective of whether or not they are used for commercial purposes.
As a rule, there are no pre-posting checks in place, but the Company conducts monitoring of all transmissions in real time. Any transmissions which are found to infringe upon the precautions may be deleted and the associated account may be suspended. Please conduct all content distribution with this in mind.
- Links to pages which cannot be viewed or operated on smartphones
Please refrain from posting links which cannot be viewed or operated on smartphones (iOS, Android). It is recommended that all linked pages display properly on smartphones.
- Links or phrasing which may be confusing to users or which may cause errors
Please refrain from posting unclear links, the use of non-functional buttons or menus, or anything else which may confuse users, may lead to operational errors, or which may significantly impair the user experience.
- Inducement to download apps
Please consult the regulations governing the App Store, Google Play, or other interfaces, as well as the Company's Terms and Conditions of Use and the Guidelines listed in this document before inducing users to download apps.
- Icon image changes
As icon images must not strike users as unnatural, it is strongly recommended that images related to the account name are used.
Due to the Service's operational specifications, icon images cannot be changed again for one hour after being changed.
For users whose friend numbers exceed a certain threshold, icon images cannot be changed unilaterally, and a separate request must be filed.
Please refrain from sudden or frequent changes to prevent possible confusion among the account's friends.
4. Operation Precautions (for Commercial Use)
For accounts used for commercial purposes, the below precautions should also be respected in terms of account operation in addition to those listed on the previous page.
- Clear display of advertisers
All advertisements must clearly display the advertiser's name. For images, this must be displayed at a clearly visible size.
When materials not belonging to the customer are used, the name of the rights holder of the materials must be displayed, and the relationship between the rights holder and the customer clearly explained.
- Prohibition of multi-sponsor advertisements
Except where specifically permitted by the Company, the resale of advertising space to a third party is prohibited. Advertisements for multiple entities or the purchase of advertising space by groups of entities is not allowed. The use of the Service to release information pertaining to unrelated third parties is also fundamentally prohibited from a user protection standpoint.
Exceptions may be made in cases in which the following conditions are met.
1. A clear relationship is established between the two entities in which one entity controls the other, and the content of the advertisement is such that users will not be confused or misled.
2. A clear logical necessity is established for the two entities to produce a combined advertisement.
- Promotion of other companies' products or services
Promotion of specific products or services are only permitted in the following cases.
1. The customer is promoting products or services produced by its own company.
Link restrictions
Please refrain from posting links to pages which do not have a direct relationship with the text or creative content in the post. Links to pages not under the practical control of the customer are also prohibited. It is required that message titles, content, and linked pages are all related, and do not strike users as unnatural.
- Corrections to posted content
When posting corrections to previously posted content, it must be made clear that the message is a correction.
Correction messages are charged at the same rate as standard posts.
Exemption of Liability
Exemption of Liability
- Once transmitted to users, messages cannot be deleted or amended by either the customer or the Company.
- Any posts to LINE VOOM or in comments determined by the Company to be inappropriate may be deleted without prior notice.
- User information of friends of the account (including but not restricted to account name and LINE ID) and message information sent in chats by the friends of the account cannot be disclosed by the Company under any circumstances (with the exception of certain functions).
- LINE is a service developed for smartphones (iOS, Android). As a result, while it does have minimum functionality for PCs and for smartphones using operating systems other than iOS and Android, the Company cannot guarantee the correct display of all official account functionality on such devices.
- Functionality of the Service (including the LINE Official Account admin screen) and the content of the Guidelines in this document may be changed without prior notice. The Company may also change the Guidelines when necessary via public notification or messaging to customers. Continued usage of the Service following such changes will constitute agreement of the customer to the new Guidelines.
- If Apple or Google determines that significant ranking changes have occurred as a result of app notifications via LINE, there is a risk that the promoted app may be rejected on the grounds of ranking manipulation. Please be aware of this possibility when promoting apps via the Service.
- In the instance that customers make use of the Service to induce users to use external services, technical or other issues may preclude users from using these external services. As a result of these inducements, customers may be subject to claims or complaints from users or sustain other disadvantageous treatment from platform holders or other sources (hereinafter referred to as "disadvantageous treatment"). The customer must be aware of this possibility and conduct any inducements to external services at its own risk. The Company shall bear no responsibility for any failures to use external services or other disadvantageous treatment as a result of such issues.
Date of Last Update:April 3, 2023