Assalamu aleykum ve rahmetullahi ve beraketuhu,
I am a small online reseller.
I buy most of my products from online stores / retailers.
I have been thinking about this lately and I am unsure if it is islamically okay, because in order to get around some problems, it takes some tricks.
I know that a muslim must abide by his contracts. However, in these cases, the terms and conditions of these online stores do not forbid such actions explicitly. I am wondering if such actions are generally not allowed.
Problem 1:
Some online stores sell products which are sold only once per customer or household.
There are two types of these stores:
a) Stores that state this limit in the item description, in the picture gallery or in the shopping cart. Most do not ask if you agree with it. It is simply taken for granted. I only know 2 stores, which state in their ToS that the number of goods is limited to household quantities or that some items have purchase limits.
b) Stores that do not even state this purchase limit anywhere. They will just cancel the order. I only know one store that will tell you after the cancellation that there is a purchase limit on that item.
My question to problem 1:
To overcome this purchase limit, I do the following. Do these count as cheating? The goal is not to be recognised as the same person/address so you don’t get a cancellation.
- use multiple accounts
- use multiple adresses, like pickup shops
- change your name and address slightly. For example, if your name is “Hasan”, write “Hasn” or “Hason” etc. If you live in London, write “Landon”, shift the postcode by one number etc.
- use a completely fake name and a pickup shop
- use names from family/friends with their consent
- change IP address (One store blocks your IP after your purchase. Another store only allows IP’s from their country. Both do not state that in their terms.)
Problem 2:
Some online stores state in their terms and conditions that they only sell to consumers. Some explicitly state that they do not sell to resellers.
My questions to problem 2:
-
As far as I know, in Islam it is not permissible to forbid the buyer of a good from reselling it. In this case, however, the online shop does not prohibit resale, but excludes resellers. Both situations are not the same but they are very similar.
Can a store choose its customers in this regard or can I just ignore that phrase? -
Some shops go so far as to block the account or even the address if they suspect that the buyer is a reseller (e.g. if you buy more than 3 pieces from an item). In this case I do the same things described in the question to problem 1.
Problem 3:
Some online stores use anti bot tools like captchas or Cloudflare.
My question to problem 3:
Is it allowed to overcome captchas or anti bot tools, if it is not forbidden in the terms and conditions of the store?
To overcome captchas, you can use a third party service for that. The captchas will either be solved by humans or by a software (AI).
Anti bot tools are working by analysing the behaviour and browser environment of the user. To overcome these, you can make the bot behave more human like or change something in the browser environment.
Problem 4:
If these actions are not allowed in Islam, is the money earned from them haram?
As far as I know, it is halal, if you did not know that it is forbidden.
Does this also count, when you violate the right of others? Do these actions count as violating the right of others?
Barakallahu feek!