Legal

Sample Affiliate Program Agreement

About this template. Alterion Labs provides this template as a starting point for Customers ("Brand") who run an affiliate program through the Alterion Labs AI Affiliate Marketing Agent. It is the agreement the Brand signs with its own affiliates ("Affiliate") — it is not the agreement between the Brand and Alterion Labs (which lives in our Terms of Service).

The template is intentionally generic and assumes a SaaS or software product distributed via web checkout. Adapt it to your jurisdiction, business model, FTC/EU disclosure regime, and commission economics. Have a licensed attorney review the final version before use. Alterion Labs does not provide legal advice.

Replace all [BRACKETED PLACEHOLDERS] before publishing. Recommended defaults are noted where relevant.

Brand: [LEGAL ENTITY NAME, e.g. Acme, Inc.] ("Brand", "we", "us", "our") Brand address: [REGISTERED ADDRESS] Effective date for this Affiliate: the date the Affiliate accepts these terms electronically.

By applying to, registering for, or participating in the Affiliate Program (the "Program"), the Affiliate ("you", "your") accepts this Affiliate Program Agreement (the "Agreement") and the Brand's separate Affiliate Program Policies (commission, cookie window, prohibited promotional methods, payout schedule). The Policies are incorporated by reference and the Brand may update them from time to time.

If you accept on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind it.


1. Definitions

  • Affiliate Link — a tracked URL provided by the Brand through the Program portal that contains the Affiliate's unique referral identifier.
  • Coupon Code — an Affiliate-specific discount code that triggers attribution at checkout without an Affiliate Link.
  • Cookie Window — the period (default sixty (60) days) during which a Referred Customer's purchase may be attributed to the Affiliate after a click on an Affiliate Link.
  • Referred Customer — a new customer of the Brand whose first qualifying purchase is correctly attributed to the Affiliate under the Brand's attribution rules.
  • Commission — the amount payable to the Affiliate for a Qualifying Conversion, as set out in the Program Policies.
  • Qualifying Conversion — a Referred Customer transaction that satisfies all attribution, eligibility, and refund conditions in this Agreement and the Program Policies.

2. Acceptance and account

You must be eighteen (18) years of age or older and legally able to enter into a contract. You must register a Program account with accurate information, keep credentials confidential, complete any required tax documentation (W-9, W-8BEN, or local equivalent), and provide a valid payout method (PayPal, Wise, Stripe Connect, or bank account, as offered).

Acceptance into the Program is at the Brand's sole discretion and may be revoked at any time. The Brand may require additional information (audience size, promotional plan, sample content) before approving the Affiliate.

3. Licence

Subject to this Agreement, the Brand grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to: (a) display the Brand's logos, banners, and approved marketing materials provided through the Program portal solely to promote the Brand's products; and (b) use Affiliate Links and Coupon Codes to refer traffic and conversions.

You receive no other rights in the Brand's name, logos, trademarks, software, models, or content. You must not register, bid on, or use the Brand's trademarks, brand-name keywords, common typos of the Brand name, or confusingly similar terms in any URL, social handle, ad campaign, or app-store listing without the Brand's prior written consent.

4. Promotional methods — what you may and may not do

4.1 Required disclosures

You must clearly and conspicuously disclose your affiliate relationship with the Brand wherever you promote, in compliance with the US Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255), the EU Digital Services Act, the UK Advertising Standards Authority CAP Code, and any other applicable consumer-protection or advertising-disclosure law in your audience's jurisdiction. Examples of compliant phrasing: "#ad", "sponsored", "affiliate link — I earn a commission". The disclosure must be visible before the link, not buried below the fold or hidden in tiny text.

4.2 Prohibited

You must not:

  • Make false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about the Brand, its products, pricing, performance, or results — including "guaranteed results", "get rich quick", or income claims you cannot substantiate.
  • Bid on the Brand's name, trademarks, or branded keywords in paid search, social, marketplace, or app-store advertising.
  • Run "cloaked" or "URL-masked" affiliate links, doorway pages, cookie-stuffing scripts, automated click bots, incentivized clicks, or any technique designed to inflate clicks or conversions without genuine user intent.
  • Buy the Brand's products through your own Affiliate Link, or arrange for friends, family members, employees, or related accounts to do so. Self-referrals are forfeited and may result in immediate termination.
  • Promote the Brand on properties that contain or facilitate adult, hateful, violent, defamatory, infringing, or otherwise unlawful content; on properties that violate any third party's intellectual-property or privacy rights; or on properties subject to US, EU, UK, or UN sanctions.
  • Spam any communication channel — including email lists you do not own, SMS, push notifications, social comments, forums, or messaging apps — in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, GDPR / ePrivacy, TCPA, CASL, or any other applicable law.
  • Hold yourself out as an employee, agent, or partner of the Brand, or accept payments, support requests, refunds, or contractual commitments on the Brand's behalf.
  • Reverse-engineer the Affiliate Link tracking, fabricate referral identifiers, or manipulate the attribution system.

The Brand may, at any time, require you to remove a specific promotion or to take down a specific page or campaign.

5. Tracking and attribution

The Brand uses cookies, local-storage values, server-to-server postbacks, Coupon Codes, and (where enabled) a fingerprint fallback to attribute conversions, as described in the Brand's privacy and cookie notices on its own website. You are not responsible for the Brand's cookie or consent posture on the Brand's site.

A conversion is a Qualifying Conversion only if all of the following are true:

  • The Referred Customer was a new customer of the Brand at the time of the click.
  • The conversion occurred inside the Cookie Window (or via a valid Coupon Code, or via S2S postback matched to the Affiliate's referral identifier).
  • The Referred Customer was not in an active sales process with the Brand at the time of the click.
  • The conversion was not refunded, charged back, or cancelled within the Brand's hold period.
  • The conversion was not generated by a self-referral, click fraud, or any breach of Section 4.2.

The last-click model applies by default: if multiple Affiliates' identifiers are present in the Cookie Window, the most recent click wins, unless the Brand specifies otherwise in the Program Policies. Cleared cookies, blocked storage, or opted-out tracking signals may prevent attribution; the Brand is not liable for the resulting loss of Commission.

6. Commission and payouts

  • Rate, structure, and duration are set out in the Program Policies (default: [X]% of the Referred Customer's qualifying revenue for [N] months / for a single transaction / recurring for life — pick one).
  • Currency is the Brand's reporting currency; the Brand sets foreign-exchange conversion rates.
  • Hold period. Commissions on a Qualifying Conversion become approved after the Brand's hold period (default: thirty (30) days) provided no refund or chargeback has occurred.
  • Payout schedule. Approved Commissions are paid monthly, on or before the [LAST WEEK / 15TH] of each month, once the Affiliate's approved balance reaches the minimum payout threshold (default: US$50).
  • Payout rails. Stripe Connect, PayPal Mass Payouts, Wise, ACH, or bank wire, as offered by the Brand. The Affiliate covers any fees imposed by the chosen rail.
  • Tax. The Affiliate is solely responsible for all taxes, levies, and reporting on Commissions. The Brand may withhold and report amounts as required by US or local tax law and may pause payouts until valid tax documentation is on file.
  • Chargebacks and refunds. If a Referred Customer refunds, charges back, disputes, or otherwise cancels within the look-back window stated in the Program Policies (default: sixty (60) days), the corresponding Commission is reversed and may be deducted from future payouts.

7. Independent contractor; no agency

This Agreement does not create any employment, partnership, joint-venture, or agency relationship. You are an independent contractor, responsible for your own taxes, expenses, and compliance with applicable law.

8. Confidentiality

The Brand may share with you non-public information — Program economics, partner lists, marketing plans, technical materials — that is identified as confidential or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential ("Confidential Information"). You will keep Confidential Information in strict confidence, use it only to perform under this Agreement, and protect it with at least the same degree of care you use to protect your own confidential information (and never less than reasonable care). Confidential Information does not include information that is or becomes publicly available through no fault of yours.

9. Privacy and data protection

You are responsible for the lawfulness of your own promotional activity, including the lawful basis on which you collect, store, and use any personal data of your audience (email subscribers, social followers, ad-platform pixel audiences, etc.). The Brand does not instruct you on the means and purposes of that processing and is not your processor.

If you use any Brand-provided audience data, leads, or contact lists (where the Program offers them), you will: (a) process that data only for the agreed promotional purpose, (b) honour all opt-outs, do-not-call, do-not-email, GPC, and unsubscribe requests promptly, (c) maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures, (d) not transfer the data to any third party without the Brand's written consent, (e) delete the data on termination of this Agreement, and (f) cooperate in good faith with any data-subject request the Brand forwards to you.

The Brand's processing of conversion data captured through the Affiliate's links (IP, browser, device, click and conversion timestamps, Stripe / Paddle / Chargebee customer IDs, transaction amount, refund events) is governed by the Brand's own privacy notice on the Brand's website.

10. Representations and warranties

You represent and warrant that:

  • You have full power and authority to enter into and perform this Agreement.
  • The properties and channels on which you promote the Brand comply with all applicable laws, terms of service, and platform policies, and do not infringe any third-party right.
  • You will comply with Section 4 and the Program Policies at all times.
  • The information you provided in your Program account (including identity, country, payout details, and tax documentation) is accurate and current.
  • You have not been convicted of, and are not currently under investigation for, fraud, money-laundering, sanctions evasion, or any offence involving dishonesty.

11. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Brand and its officers, directors, employees, affiliates, agents, and licensors from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your participation in the Program, (b) any promotional content or method you use, (c) your breach of this Agreement, the Program Policies, or any law, (d) your infringement of any third-party intellectual-property, privacy, or contractual right, (e) any data-protection violation by you, and (f) any tax or regulatory liability arising from your activity.

12. Disclaimers; limitation of liability

The Program, the Program portal, the Affiliate Links, the marketing materials, and any analytics provided to you are made available "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE", with all faults and without warranty of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. The Brand does not warrant that the Program will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that any specific level of clicks, conversions, or Commissions will result.

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

  • Neither party will be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, audience, or reputation, arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or the Program.
  • The Brand's aggregate liability for any and all claims is limited to the total Commissions actually paid to the Affiliate in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
  • These limits apply regardless of legal theory and form an essential basis of the bargain.

13. Term, suspension, and termination

This Agreement starts on acceptance and continues until terminated. Either party may terminate without cause on fifteen (15) days' written notice. The Brand may suspend or terminate immediately if it believes in good faith that the Affiliate has breached this Agreement, the Program Policies, or any law, or that the Affiliate's continued participation poses a reputational, legal, or financial risk.

On termination:

  • The Affiliate's licence under Section 3 ends. The Affiliate must promptly remove all Brand trademarks, logos, marketing materials, and Affiliate Links from every property under its control.
  • Commissions for Qualifying Conversions recognized before the termination date are paid out on the next regular payout cycle, subject to the hold period and minimum threshold.
  • If the Brand terminated for cause under this Section 13, no further Commissions are owed, and the Brand may withhold any approved-but-unpaid balance to set off against amounts owed by the Affiliate.

14. Non-solicitation

For the term of this Agreement and twelve (12) months after termination, the Affiliate will not knowingly solicit Referred Customers or other identifiable Brand customers to switch to a competing product, except through general (non-targeted) marketing.

15. Force majeure

Neither party will be liable for any failure or delay in performance — other than payment of approved Commissions — to the extent caused by an event beyond its reasonable control (acts of God, natural disaster, war, terrorism, civil unrest, pandemic, government action, sanctions, labour dispute, network outage, denial-of-service attack, failure of upstream providers including AI model providers, payment processors, billing platforms such as Stripe / Paddle / Chargebee / Shopify, DNS, or CDN providers).

16. Statute of limitations

Any claim or cause of action arising out of or relating to this Agreement must be filed within one (1) year after it accrued; otherwise it is permanently barred. This does not apply to claims for non-payment of approved Commissions or claims for infringement or misappropriation of intellectual-property rights.

17. Governing law and dispute resolution

This Agreement is governed by the laws of [STATE / COUNTRY], without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute will be resolved exclusively in [the state and federal courts seated in CITY, STATE] / [final and binding arbitration before [JAMS / AAA] in CITY, STATE, before a single arbitrator] — pick one and delete the other. Each party waives any right to bring claims on a class, collective, or representative basis. Either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual-property or confidential information.

18. Changes

The Brand may update this Agreement and the Program Policies. Material changes will be communicated at least thirty (30) days before they take effect. Continued participation after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

19. General

  • Survival. The following sections survive termination: §1 (Definitions), §6 (Commission and payouts — for accrued amounts), §8 (Confidentiality), §9 (Privacy and data protection), §10 (Representations), §11 (Indemnification), §12 (Disclaimers; liability), §14 (Non-solicitation), §16 (Statute of limitations), §17 (Governing law; disputes), and this §19.
  • Entire agreement. This Agreement and the Program Policies are the entire agreement between the parties regarding the Program and supersede all prior agreements.
  • Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect and the unenforceable provision will be reformed only to the minimum extent necessary.
  • No waiver. Failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver.
  • Assignment. The Affiliate may not assign without the Brand's prior written consent. The Brand may assign freely, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets.
  • Notices. Notices to the Brand must be sent to [BRAND CONTACT EMAIL]. Notices to the Affiliate are sent to the email on the Program account.
  • Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

Template provenance. This template was prepared by Alterion Labs, Inc. and is provided to Customers of the AI Affiliate Marketing Agent without warranty of any kind. It is not legal advice. Alterion Labs assumes no liability for the use of this template or for any agreement signed in reliance on it. Have a licensed attorney review and adapt it before use.