Gumtree Australia Support Knowledgebase - Safety - What are the General posting rules?
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What are the General posting rules?



General Gumtree Posting Policies

Updated October 2023
As a condition of use of Gumtree, and as part of agreeing to our Terms of Use you agree to

comply with these policies.

At Gumtree, we want to make sure that the site is as clean, friendly, and usable as possible for everyone. Ads that fall outside the posting rules in this policy may be removed from the site in accordance with our Terms of Use.

You are solely responsible for all information that you submit to Gumtree and any consequences that may result from your post. We reserve the right at our discretion to refuse or delete content that we believe is inappropriate, or breaches our Terms of Use or breaches legislation. We also reserve the right at our discretion to restrict a user's use of the site either temporarily or permanently, or refuse a user's registration or cancel a user’s account. See our Terms of Use for more information on how you may and may not use the Platform.

If an ad fails to meet any of the criteria, or for any of the reasons set out below, Gumtree may remove your ad in accordance with our Terms of Use – with or without notice to you.

General reasons for ads being deleted are:

1. Breaches of applicable laws. In particular, all job ads for employment must offer a rate of pay and terms and conditions of employment that satisfies the Fair Work Act 2009, the adult national minimum wage and modern award/enterprise agreement rates of pay. It is the responsibility of the advertiser before posting an ad on Gumtree to ensure that content advertised adheres to Gumtree posting policies as well as Australian laws. As a condition of your use of Gumtree specified under our Terms of Use, you agree that your ad does not violate any laws and warrant that you have taken all reasonable steps to satisfy yourself that the terms and conditions (including the pay rate) offered for employment comply with the Fair Work Act 2009 and other relevant legislation.

2. Your ad includes information which Gumtree believes is designed to manipulate search, including keyword stuffing and adding tags to your ad. Click here to learn more.

3. The ad is a duplicate of another ad previously posted.

4. The ad is posted under the wrong category, or your ad cannot be allocated into a category we provide (you must choose the single most relevant category for your ad).

5. Ads posted in a language other than English. We only accept ads in English. It's acceptable to include a translation of your ad in another language in addition to English.

6. Ads posted from overseas or from behind a VPN unless the ad is posted in anticipation of you being in Australia (eg. to find a place to live or a job while you are here). Gumtree is for Australian based individuals and businesses only.

7. Ad contains external links: No external website links are allowed within your ad to other property / job / classified or auction sites.

8. Not descriptive enough: Ads that do not provide enough detail will be placed on hold or removed as this makes for a bad browsing experience.

9.  Ads which do not meet the Children’s Advertising Code as adopted by the Australian Association of National Advertisers, which includes not advertising sex related services and displaying proper safety standards.

10. Ad contains inappropriate language, including any language which contravenes the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Conduct.

11. Ads that contain any inappropriate photo or image, including any images which contravene the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Conduct.

12. Discriminatory on race / religion / nationality / gender / sexual orientation / political views etc.

13. Ads that report other fraudulent ads. Please report potentially fraudulent ads via the "report ad" option located within each ad or Contact Us with ad details (ad id, email address) and reasons why these ads should be reviewed.

14. Ads that are intended to profit off natural disasters, health or public safety concerns (including epidemics or pandemics or related government restrictions), or tragic events.

15. Ads that contain misinformation, including but not limited to the misinformation of health related information.

16. Ads relating to the exploitation or potential endangerment of minors. Gumtree reserves the right to remove any ad that we determine is in breach of, or may breach, our policies or legislation, is not relevant or in the correct category, or is not of value to the Gumtree community, with or without notice to the ad poster.

There are several ways that your ad may be found to be in breach of policy and removed from the site including:

Your ad has been reported to us.

When this happens your ad may be temporarily suspended until we review it.

We check reported ads as quickly as we can. If we conclude that the ad hasn't broken any Posting Policies or Terms of Use we will activate the ad again promptly. Check back after a few hours to see if this is the case.

● Your ad has been removed by our moderation tools
Ads identified by our automated tools that break our Posting Policies or Terms of Use will be removed from the site.

In most cases we email you to let you know when we have had to remove your ad. These emails sometimes get directed to junk folders so please look out for Gumtree emails. You may wish to add Gumtree to your safe senders list if you have one.

If you have checked out all of these possibilities and none of them apply to your ad then please let us know by clicking on "Contact Gumtree" located bottom of help pages and we'll be happy to help you out.

● Your ad falls into a restricted category

What is not allowed on Gumtree?
Restricted Categories

You are restricted from selling or seeking to buy on the Gumtree Platform:

1. Alcoholic beverages

2. Blood, body parts and bodily fluids, or offers of humans for sale, including offers or requests for adoption or surrogacy

3. Burglary tools

4. Counterfeit products, replicas or knock-off brand name goods

5. Electronic surveillance equipment

6. Embargoed goods

7. Endangered or protected species, or any part of any endangered or protected species

8. Fireworks, destructive devices and explosives

9. Government and transit badges, uniforms, IDs, documents and licenses

10. Hazardous materials including but not limited to radioactive, toxic and explosive materials

11. Identity documents, personal financial records and personal information

12. Illegal drugs, controlled substances, substances and items used to manufacture drugs and controlled substances, items designed only to help someone take drugs and drug paraphernalia

13. Nitrous oxide products, including but not limited to nitrous oxide canisters, bulbs, nangs and cream chargers

14. Illegal items and services, and items which encourage or facilitate illegal activity

15. Anything that has the potential to be exploitative, endangering or degrading of any individual or group, including minor

16. Illegal telecommunication and electronics equipment such as access cards, password sniffers, radar scanners, traffic signal control devices or cable descrambler

17. Items issued to any Armed Force that have not been disposed of in accordance with that country's demilitarization policies

18. Lottery tickets, sweepstakes entries and slot machines

19. Material, pictures and images that are obscene, pornographic, adult in nature, contain nudity or are harmful to minors

20. Material that infringes copyright, including but not limited to software or other digital goods which you are not authorized to sell

21. New merchandise or services from network marketing companies, work-from-home, independent franchisees or distributors, or similar representatives

22. Personal information or mailing lists. We do not accept the sale of bulk email, Internet Protocol (IP), Instant Messenger (IM), or mailing lists that contain names, addresses, phone numbers, or other personal identifying information. Any tools or software designed predominantly to send unsolicited commercial messages (UCE or "spam") are also not permitted

23. Services for supplements/medicine general or pharmaceutical products prescription or non-prescription drugs and devices, drugs that make false or misleading treatment claims, or treatment claims that require therapeutic goods administration "TGA" approval

24. Massage services, including any form of massage practice whether therapeutic, restorative, sexual or otherwise

25. Any type of personal ads, including ads for dating or casual encounters. Instead, you can join the Gumtree singles community with our dating partner RSVP here: https://gumtree.rsvp.com.au/

26. Commercial tanning units or commercial tanning services wanted or offered

27. Offensive material (which would offend a reasonable person)

28. Pesticides or hazardous materials

29. Plants and insects that are restricted or regulated

30. Recalled items, banned products or products that do not meet the mandatory product safety standards (for items recalled in Australia and information on product safety bans and mandatory standards, please visit: www.productsafety.gov.au)

31. Stocks and other securities including Bitcoins and related mining equipment

32. Stolen property

33. Tobacco products and related items and apparatus, including e-cigarettes or vapes

34. Used cosmetics

35. Used undergarments

36. Used or rebuilt batteries or batteries containing mercury

37. Weapons and related items (including, but not limited to firearms, firearm accessories, parts and magazines, ammunition, paintball guns, gel blaster guns, BB and pellet guns, spearguns, tear gas, tasers, stun guns, knives (including switchblade knives), martial arts weapons, archery and/or bow and arrow equipment)

38. Ivory, rhino horn or any animal parts or hunting trophies listed in the CITES 1 guidelines

39. Votes or voting forms in elections administered by the Australian Electoral Commission or state-based Electoral Commission

40. Census or other survey papers issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistic

41. Electric dog collars (Training E-Collar, Shock Collar, Anti Bark Collar)

42. Certain single use plastic items are not allowed on Gumtree, including the following:

a. Lightweight plastic shopping bags of 35 microns or less.

b. Plastic drinking straws

c. Plastic drink stirrers

d. Plastic cutlery

e. Plastic plates

f. Plastic cotton buds

g. Expanded polystyrene food service items; including cups, bowls, clam shells and plates.

For more information visit https://www.nationalretail.org.au/policy-advocacy/action-on-single-use- plastics/

It is the responsibility of the advertiser before posting an ad on Gumtree that content advertised adheres to Gumtree Posting Policies as well as applicable laws. As a condition of your use of Gumtree specified under our Terms of Use, you agree that you will not violate any laws.