Is it legal to sell an account on Tibia?

Question

I'm pretty shocked to hear about recent changes to Tibia. Please note I will never ever sell my account and do not support rule violations. However, is it legal to sell an account on Tibia?

Answer 1

CIP is very unclear with this under the new rules we may have to wait for an official statement. If you read the announcement and FAQ it seems like they are removing the rule against trading and sharing accounts.

CIP say rule 5a will be abolished which is "Offering account data to other players, accepting other players' account data or allowing other players to use your account."

Under the announcement "Character Auctions"

"Only characters will be auctioned, not accounts. The character will be moved from the seller's account to the buyer's account. No personal information will be transferred, no new recovery key will be needed. Only the buyer will have access to the character after the transfer.

To mark the clear distinction between account trading/sharing and character auctions, we have revised our rules and guidelines. An account includes personal information about its holder, e.g. payment information and registration data, and is a key element of the relationship between a specific individual (the account holder) and CipSoft. As such, an account is untransferable and we do not condone the trading or selling of accounts. It goes against the terms on which CipSoft offers you access to an account. Therefore, we are going to add a new passage to the Extended Service Agreement, for cases in which the agreed upon stipulations have not been upheld. In return, Tibia Rule 5a) Account Trading or Sharing will be abolished. The Service Agreements will be amended on September 14, when every player has to agree to the new terms and conditions. Please note that the new terms of service will only be available from this date forward, not before."

From the FAQ, there will be no rule against trading accounts:

"What about account trading/sharing statements?

 If we receive statements of this kind, customer support will process them. We expect players not to share or trade their accounts, and we strongly advise against doing so as we know from experience that these practices can lead to all kinds of problems for the players. However, since there will be no dedicated Tibia Rules against the sharing and trading of accounts, different criteria will apply in regards to enforcement and possible sanctions, and such cases will be handled on a case by case basis.

Players who share or trade their accounts and get into trouble as a result can expect no support from our side. Moreover, we reserve the right to apply further sanctions based on the individual situation; however, there are no standard rules of procedure. Please note, though, that violations of the Service Agreements are the sole concern between the contractual partners, i.e. us and the holder of the account. For this reason we cannot provide any further information in regards to the account or possible sanctions."

Sources:
https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=newsarchive&id=5691&fbegind=14&fbeginm=7&fbeginy=2020&fendd=13&fendm=8&fendy=2020&flist=11111111

https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=newsarchive&id=5692&fbegind=14&fbeginm=7&fbeginy=2020&fendd=13&fendm=8&fendy=2020&flist=11111111

Answer 2

If we receive statements of this kind, customer support will process them. We expect players not to share or trade their accounts, and we strongly advise against doing so as we know from experience that these practices can lead to all kinds of problems for the players. However, since there will be no dedicated Tibia Rules against the sharing and trading of accounts, different criteria will apply in regards to enforcement and possible sanctions, and such cases will be handled on a case by case basis.

source: https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=newsarchive&id=5692&fbegind=14&fbeginm=7&fbeginy=2020&fendd=13&fendm=8&fendy=2020&flist=11111111#faq1

On the other hand:

As such, an account is untransferable and we do not condone the trading or selling of accounts. It goes against the terms on which CipSoft offers you access to an account. Therefore, we are going to add a new passage to the Extended Service Agreement, for cases in which the agreed upon stipulations have not been upheld. In return, Tibia Rule 5a) Account Trading or Sharing will be abolished.

source: https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=newsarchive&id=5691&fbegind=14&fbeginm=7&fbeginy=2020&fendd=13&fendm=8&fendy=2020&flist=11111111

So, for now there is no rule in Cipsoft's interior regulations, that selling account is illegal (= it is LEGAL), but they are against this kind of dealings, it is against terms on which CipSoft offers you access to an account and we have to be aware, that  they may punish us for selling account (= it is ILLEGAL).

To sum up: it is legal, but illegal (sorry for being sarcastic).

Personally I suggest to not selling account, because even if there is no particular rule about it, you take on yourself huge rist, that you may be somehow punished by Cipsoft or cheated by the person you are dealing with.

Comments

i would like to add that they do this due is the only way they defend themselves against scammers, thiefs and fraud, they won't ever encourage it as they won't encourage selling stuff by irl money since there aren't methods safe enough right now so is basically a legal vacuum or gray zone whether any action taken that goes against the agreement of cipsoft can't be used as legal argument, example if someone sell his account and gets scammed.