Compliance
Affiliate marketing compliance, done right.
Who regulates affiliate marketing, what the FTC actually requires, how to disclose correctly on every platform, the taxes you owe, the fraud to watch for, and a quarterly audit to keep it all clean. The complete reference — for affiliates and the merchants who run programs.
Quick Answer
Affiliate marketing compliance means following the legal rules and platform policies that apply to anyone earning commissions from recommendations.
In the US it primarily means FTC disclosure — clearly telling people about your affiliate relationship on every page, post, video, or email that carries an affiliate link. On top of that sit four more layers: platform policies (Google, Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Microsoft each have their own affiliate rules, including bridge-page requirements for paid traffic), data privacy (GDPR for EU traffic, CCPA/CPRA in California), email law (CAN-SPAM), and tax obligations on what you earn.
It applies to both sides of the relationship. Affiliates are responsible for disclosing and for how they drive traffic; merchants running a program are responsible for what their affiliates do in their name — which is why program monitoring and clear program terms are part of the same job.
Most of it collapses into a short setup: a disclosure template on every page, the right tags on social, an accurate privacy policy, and a quarterly review. The step-by-step checklist walks through it.
Start here · The Playbook
The Affiliate Compliance Checklist
The end-to-end walkthrough — the regulators (FTC, IRS, CAP/ASA, ACCC), the rules that apply to you, disclosure placement, and how to keep a program or a portfolio of sites on the right side of the line.
Compliance tool
Affiliate Disclosure Generator
Pick your platform — blog, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, email, Amazon — and copy an FTC-compliant disclosure plus exactly where to place it. Runs entirely in your browser.
Original study
We checked 56 top affiliate sites — 1 in 4 aren't clearly compliant.
The essentials
Disclosure, the law, and your taxes
FTC Disclosure
Affiliate Link Disclosure
FTC-compliant disclosure templates you can copy — for blogs, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and email. Why "affiliate link" alone isn't enough, and where to place it.
Legal
Legal Requirements
The five legal requirements, what's actually illegal (cookie stuffing, trademark bidding, fake reviews), and how the rules differ outside the US.
Tax
Affiliate Marketing Taxes
The 2026 tax guide — 1099 forms, Schedule C, self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, and every deduction you can legitimately claim.
Protect & verify
Fraud, legitimacy, and a recurring audit
Fraud
Affiliate Fraud Prevention
The fraud types that drain programs — cookie stuffing, click spam, fake leads, coupon abuse — and how merchants detect and shut them down.
Audit
Affiliate Marketing Audit
A step-by-step checklist to review your compliance, links, tracking, and content — plus a program-health pass for merchants. Run it quarterly.
Legitimacy
Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?
The honest answer — legal status, the major publishers running on it, the FTC rules that keep it above board, and how to spot the scam version.
Definition
Affiliate Cloaking
What link cloaking is, the legitimate uses (clean, branded links) versus the deceptive ones that violate network terms and platform policy.
Common questions
What is affiliate marketing compliance?
Affiliate marketing compliance is the practice of following the legal rules and platform policies that apply to people who earn commissions by recommending products. In the United States it primarily means following FTC disclosure rules — clearly disclosing your affiliate relationship whenever you recommend a product. It also includes platform-specific rules (Google Ads, Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram all have their own affiliate policies), data-privacy regulations (GDPR for EU traffic, CCPA in California), email rules (CAN-SPAM in the US), and tax obligations on the income you earn.
Who regulates affiliate marketing?
There's no single affiliate-marketing regulator. In the US the Federal Trade Commission sets the disclosure rules through its Endorsement Guides, the IRS governs the tax side, and state law adds privacy obligations (notably California's CCPA/CPRA). In the UK it's the Competition and Markets Authority alongside the ASA's advertising codes; in the EU, consumer-protection law plus GDPR; in Australia, the ACCC. On top of government regulators, the ad platforms and affiliate networks enforce their own terms — and in practice those are the rules most likely to cost you an account.
Is affiliate marketing compliance different for merchants?
Yes. An affiliate is responsible for their own disclosures and traffic methods. A merchant running a program is additionally responsible for what affiliates do while promoting the brand — the FTC has held advertisers accountable for their affiliates' claims. That means clear program terms, a stated disclosure requirement, monitoring for prohibited tactics like trademark bidding and cookie stuffing, and a documented process for removing affiliates who break the rules. The affiliate audit covers the merchant-side pass.
How often should I review compliance?
Quarterly is enough for most affiliate businesses, plus an immediate check any time you add a new platform, join a new program, or change how you drive traffic. The recurring pass takes about ten minutes: spot-check disclosures on your top pages, confirm new content is disclosed, verify links still carry your tracking, and re-read any program terms that changed. Networks update their terms quietly, so that last one catches more problems than people expect.
Keep exploring
Compliant links still have to be tracked.
Once you're compliant, the next question is attribution — getting credit for the sales you drive. The tracking hub covers click IDs, postbacks, and the pixel-vs-API decision.