In the event of confirmation of prohibited behaviour (a violation) of the Final Fantasy XIV User Agreement or Square Enix Account Terms of Use, a penalty appropriate to the violation will be issued to the Final Fantasy XIV service account.

There are six levels of penalty in ascending order of severity: "Caution", "Warning", "Temporary Service Account Suspension (3 Days)", "Temporary Service Account Suspension (10 Days)", "Temporary Service Account Suspension (20 Days)", and "Service Account Termination".

"Caution" is the least severe penalty and is issued when a relatively minor violation is confirmed. Depending on the nature of the violation, Square Enix will provide an "instruction for improvement" providing the player with guidance on how to improve their behaviour to prevent further violations of this type in the future. Please follow any such instructions.

"Warning" is a penalty issued for minor violations for which a more severe penalty than a Caution is required. As with a Caution, depending on the nature of the violation, an instruction for improvement may be given with regard to the violation. Please follow any instructions to prevent further account actions in the future.

"Temporary Service Account Suspension" is a penalty issued when a serious violation is confirmed. When a Temporary Service Account Suspension penalty is issued, the user will not be able to play Final Fantasy XIV during the applicable suspension period.

There are three types of Temporary Service Account Suspension: 3 Days, 10 Days, and 20 Days. The duration of the suspension period is determined according to the severity of the violation, combined with the player's record of past violations. Even if a Caution or Warning was not issued in respect of past behaviour, a temporary suspension may be imposed depending on the nature of the violation.

When a temporary suspension penalty is issued, the suspension will take effect immediately, but the suspension period will be counted from 12:00 a.m. UTC the following day. For example, if a 3-day penalty is issued on January 1 at 6:00 p.m. UTC, the user will not be able to play during the 6-hour period until 12:00 a.m. UTC on January 2, and also during the 3-day period thereafter, i.e. a total of 3 days and 6 hours. Square Enix will not be held responsible for the reduction in game availability resulting from the suspension, including the refund of the Final Fantasy XIV Subscription Fee for the duration of the suspension.

During the suspension period, it will not be possible to use any of the Final Fantasy XIV service accounts associated with the Square Enix account. For example, if two Final Fantasy XIV service accounts "A" and "B" are associated with the Square Enix account, and a suspension penalty is issued to "A", it will not be possible to use either "A" or "B". Note that it will be possible to access services other than Final Fantasy XIV, such as login to the Square Enix account management system.

If a service account suspension penalty is issued, a review will always be carried out to determine whether a service account termination should be applied. As well as being a penalty for a violation, the temporary suspension period is also the period during which this review will take place. Depending on the nature of the violation, the review process for permanent suspension may not be completed during the temporary suspension period. In this case, the temporary suspension period will be extended until the review is completed.

Penalty Points refer to specific point values that are assigned to each type of violation category (i.e. "obscene/indecent expressions", "aggressive expressions such as violent language/slander/insults/threats, etc.") and vary depending on the severity of the violation type. The total sum of these Penalty Points determines the type of penalty an offender will receive.

For example, if a player receives 10 Penalty Points for "obscene/indecent expressions" and another 5 points for "aggressive expressions such as violent language/slander/insults/threats", then a penalty equivalent to 15 points will be issued on their account.

Penalty Points, together with the actual penalty issued, are recorded and will be used to determine the penalties issued for any future violations.

All penalties and Penalty Points are recorded and accumulated. As such, in the event a user repeats violations, new Penalty Points will be added, and then a penalty for the new verified violation will be issued based on those points. 

For example, if a player received 15 points for a previous violation and then committed a new violation worth 10 points, then their latest penalty will be based on the total sum of 25 points, and both the penalty and accrued points will be recorded on their account.

It is possible that a Caution or Warning penalty will be issued if the previously recorded violation was equivalent to Caution or Warning. However, if the previously recorded violation was a Temporary Service Account Suspension, then a heavier penalty will be imposed even if the new violation is equivalent to a Caution or Warning. 

For example, if a Temporary Service Account Suspension (3 Days) penalty was issued in the past and a violation equivalent to a Caution is confirmed, a Temporary Service Account Suspension (10 Days) penalty or higher penalty may be issued.

However, accrued Penalty Points may be reduced based on the number of days that have passed since the previous penalty. Please refer to the next section for details.

If a significant amount of time has passed since the last penalty was issued, then accrued Penalty Points may be reduced based on the content of the previous penalty and the actual number of days that have passed. This does not mean that Penalty Points will suddenly reset to 0 points after a certain number of days. Instead, points will decay in proportion to the number of days elapsed.

If the previously issued penalty was either a Caution or Warning, accrued Penalty Points will continue to decay until it reaches 0 points in a one-to-two-year period. However, if the previously issued penalty was a Temporary Service Account Suspension, then the accrued points will not start decaying until a minimum of a three to six-year period has passed and will not reach 0 points for a minimum of seven to ten years.

If a new violation is confirmed after the points reduction, the Penalty Points from the new violation will be added to the remaining points from the reduction to determine the penalty to issue for the new violation.

The reduction of accrued points is based on the amount of time that has passed since the last penalty. Therefore, if a subsequent violation is committed before a reduction occurs, then the countdown towards a reduction will reset at that point. In addition, this system will not reverse a Service Account Termination.

A Service Account Termination can be issued on a Square Enix account in the event of a severe violation being confirmed or repeated violations. A Service Account Termination will permanently remove your access to Final Fantasy XIV. In addition, any other Final Fantasy XIV service accounts associated with the Square Enix account will also be terminated. Square Enix will not be held responsible for any refunds due to the inability to play the game. 

For example, if a player has five service accounts for Final Fantasy XIV and other Square Enix account services and is issued a Service Account Termination on one of the Final Fantasy XIV service accounts, they will also lose access to all five service accounts for Final Fantasy XIV. However, the user will still retain access to the other Square Enix account services.

Note: In exceptional circumstances, the Square Enix account may be subject to compulsory cancellation. If a Square Enix account is cancelled in this manner, all services associated with that account will become unavailable.