Internet Affiliate, Advertising and Marketing Contracts

Affiliates and Advertising

As internet lawyers, we are asked to deal with many kinds of web affiliate and advertising agreements.

Amongst the many issues which can arise between publishers / affiliates, advertisers and advertising networks are: the allocation of liability for unlawful or infringing ad content, what happens if the publisher / affiliate uses underhand methods of generating clicks (e.g, “clickfraud”); and defining clearly the calculation of, the publisher / affiliate’s entitlement to, commission, including the right of the advertiser to withhold payment where appropriate.

Web and Social Media Marketing

We also deal with more general internet and web marketing contracts, e.g., social media marketing. One key point here is to ensure that the deliverables of the internet marketer are clearly defined, so as to minimise the risk that the parties will have different expectations, resulting in a dispute. Also, social media marketers who write and post material on behalf their customers must require the customer to approve the content in advance or, at least, to check it within a short period of posting. In case the marketer has inadvertently said something in the name of the customer which might damage the cutomer’s reputation or expose the customer to liability.