DigiBorder

GUIDE · UPDATED 1 NOVEMBER 2026

Restrict ebook, course and music sales by country on Shopify

Rights for digital content are often territorial. An ebook edition may be licensed only for North America, a course may include content cleared only for some countries, and licensed music, fonts or stock assets can come with their own limits. Sanctions add countries you can't sell to at all.

On Shopify, the practical way to respect those limits is to check the billing country at checkout.

Sell only where your rights allow

If your rights cover a short list of countries, use an allow list: buyers billed in those countries can buy, everyone else is stopped at checkout. If you can sell almost everywhere, use a block list for the exceptions.

  1. Mark your digital products as not requiring shipping in Shopify (most download and course apps do this already).
  2. In DigiBorder, choose "Allow selected countries" and pick the territories in your contract, or "Block selected countries" for the exceptions.
  3. Write a short message for blocked buyers, for example: "This edition isn't available in your country."
  4. Activate the rule and test a checkout with a billing address from outside your territories.

Different rights for different products

When titles have different territories, DigiBorder's Strict plan lets you limit the rule to selected collections or product tags, and give up to three collections their own country list. For example, a "UK edition" collection allowed only in the UK and Ireland, next to a "US edition" collection allowed only in the US and Canada.

Strict can also require customers to log in before buying, exempt customers with a tag (for example, verified institutional buyers), and require the billing country to match the country the buyer shops in.

What it can't do

  • It checks orders placed through Shopify online checkout, including express wallets. POS sales and orders created in the admin or by other apps aren't checked.
  • It uses the billing country entered at checkout. It doesn't check IP address, VPN use or the card's issuing country.
  • It enforces the territories you set. Your contracts decide which territories those are.