Understanding Affiliate Program Terms and Contracts
Your affiliate agreement is a contract that governs disclosure, trademarks, PPC, prohibited methods, and clawbacks — independent of the law. Read it as a compliance document.
Your affiliate program agreement is a contract, and it governs your relationship with the merchant independent of any statute or regulator. Many affiliates skim these terms and later lose accounts and unpaid commissions over rules they never read. Treat the agreement as a primary compliance document.
What program terms typically control
- Disclosure requirements — many programs require FTC-compliant disclosure and make you responsible for it.
- Trademark and PPC rules — restrictions on brand bidding, trademark use in ads, and brand-containing domains.
- Prohibited promotion methods — spam, incentivized clicks, cookie stuffing, misleading claims, coupon abuse.
- Content restrictions — bans on adult, illegal, or brand-damaging contexts.
- Commission terms — rates, cookie windows, return/clawback policies, and payment thresholds.
- Termination and clawback — the merchant’s right to end the relationship and reverse commissions for violations.
“Cookie stuffing” is fraud, not a gray area
Dropping affiliate cookies without a genuine click — “cookie stuffing” — has led to criminal prosecutions, not just account bans. Never manipulate tracking to claim commissions you did not earn.
How the contract interacts with the law
Program terms and the law operate on separate tracks. Regulators enforce disclosure and consumer-protection law; merchants enforce their contracts. You can be fully compliant with the FTC and still lose your account for breaching program rules — and you can satisfy a program while still violating the law. Compliance means satisfying every layer that applies to you.
Practical guidance
- Read the full agreement before joining, not after a problem.
- Note the disclosure, trademark, PPC, and prohibited-method sections.
- Keep a copy of the terms as they existed when you joined; they change.
- When terms are ambiguous, ask the program manager in writing.
- Reconcile your commissions against the stated clawback and return policies.
Related: brand bidding, trademark issues, and the compliance checklist.
Last reviewed July 2026. This page is general educational information, not legal or tax advice.