The internet has undoubtedly revolutionised the way goods and services are distributed to customers by business owners.

A good example of this is the advent of ‘affiliate marketing’. ‘Affiliate Marketing’ is when a company which provides a good or service (‘the Merchant’) pays other web users (the ‘Affiliate’) a commission on any customer referrals the Affiliate makes to the Merchant’s website. These referrals are done by use of links or banners on the Affiliate’s website, emails or newsletters to the Merchant’s website.

Our UK Affiliate Marketing Agreement is a comprehensive agreement prepared for those websites that intend to operate their own affiliate programme. Such programmes, using custom designed software or off the shelf packages, can enable any trading website to pay commission to other websites that deliver customers or leads.

In order to ensure that the process and terms are clear to the affiliate websites that will promote your website, you should ensure that you have a legal Affiliate Agreement published on your site, to which new affiliates are required to agree.

This agreement includes a \"self billing\" option. The capability to allow self-billing (i.e. where the merchant prepares the invoices on behalf of affiliates) can ease the administration burden.

This document is suitable for websites hosted in England and Wales and contains the following clauses:

• application and approval process
• links and licence for promotional material
• sales and commission tracking mechanism
• limitations on use
• payment process, VAT and self billing (optional)
• data protection
• conditions and availability
• termination
• limitations on liability.

These forms have been created by UK lawyers for use in England and Wales.