Affiliate Policy
The Affiliates Program at ÀWA Marketplace allows qualified affiliates and customers to earn commissions on qualifying sales that originate from links on an Affiliate’s site to ÀWA Marketplace’s websites. This Affiliates Policy describes your rights and duties as an affiliate of ÀWA Marketplace.
The Affiliates Program at ÀWA Marketplace allows qualified businesses or people (collectively, “Affiliates,” each an “Affiliate”) to earn commissions on qualifying purchases created by specific links generated by an Affiliate on the Platform (“Affiliate Links”). When you join ÀWA Marketplace’s Affiliates Program, this policy describes your rights and duties. “Authorized Channels” refers to your own and run social media pages, websites, blogs, emails, and other communications, media, and channels that have been authorized and approved for participation in the Affiliate’s Program by ÀWA Marketplace.
You agree to be governed by these terms (the “Affiliates Policy”) if you apply for and participate in ÀWA Marketplace’s Affiliates Program. You also agree to follow by our Terms of Use (which include crucial Arbitration terms as described below) and indicate that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy, which are all incorporated by reference into this Affiliates Policy.
Eligibility and Enrollment in ÀWA Marketplace’s Affiliates Program
To acquire access to the Affiliates Program, prospective Affiliates must apply to be a member of the Affiliates Program and be authorized by ÀWA Marketplace in its sole discretion. Sales made through relevant Affiliate Links will be tracked regardless of where they were made. Prospective Affiliates are assessed based on factors such as the type of site, the quality of the site, the substance of the site, the range of site material and things advertised, brand identification, and alignment with the ideals of ÀWA Marketplace. Prospective Affiliates may be required to provide extra information regarding any of the listed criteria throughout the application process.
ÀWA Marketplace merchants are eligible for the Affiliates Program, however they cannot earn commission on sales from their own or closely connected shops unless ÀWA Marketplace expressly approves in writing. Shops in which a ÀWA Marketplace seller has a financial stake or a substantial personal, technical, financial, or business link with the seller’s own store are referred to as closely associated shops.
To be considered for our Affiliates Program, you must meet the following requirements:
- You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your country (if you are older);
- Have a website with a URL – ÀWA Marketplace must approve each unique site and URL independently (using a link landing page such as linktree counts)
- Upon application, notify the ÀWA Marketplace Affiliate staff through email of any ÀWA Marketplace stores you own or are closely associated to (if relevant).
- After becoming an authorized Affiliate, notify ÀWA Marketplace’s Affiliate staff through email of any ÀWA Marketplace stores you register or become engaged with.
Without previous written approval from ÀWA Marketplace, the following categories of websites are forbidden from participating in the Affiliates Program:
- “Cash-back” or voucher websites (websites that reward users for purchasing things via referral links);
- Sites that compare prices;
- Sites that embed media using an iFrame or similar code;
- Ad networks or ad platforms (internet networks that sell or put adverts) sites;
- Websites that employ “pop-ups” or “pop-unders” (websites that open hidden or “pop-up” windows in users’ browsers);
- Sites that provide “dropshipping” or similar delivery services; Social sharing sites, forums, social media pages, and registries (except Instagram (must have at least 500 followers with at least 3% engagement rate), (ii) Pinterest (must own created content), and (iii) YouTube, or as otherwise approved in writing by ÀWA Marketplace);
- Sites dedicated completely or mostly to the promotion of ÀWA Marketplace commodities;
- Unlicensed merchandise with registered trademarks or other intellectual property held by other parties are promoted on websites.
- Sites that need a password or other authentication to access content;
- Sites that enable or promote the posting of third-party or user-generated material;
- Sites that include content that is sexual, religious, political, or otherwise sensitive, or that otherwise violates ÀWA Marketplace’s Anti-Discrimination and Hate Speech Policy, or are otherwise incompatible with ÀWA Marketplace’s brand.
During your participation in the Affiliates Program, you must submit and maintain complete and accurate information about yourself (including payment and tax information). At any moment, ÀWA Marketplace reserves the right to authenticate or verify the truth and correctness of your account and registration information. Once accepted, you are responsible for all activity connected to your Affiliates Program account, and you must notify ÀWA Marketplace immediately if there is any known or suspected unauthorized use of your account or a breach of your account’s security. It is not possible to join the Affiliates Program via a sub-network if you are an Affiliate and also a ÀWA Marketplace merchant.
ÀWA Marketplace maintains the right to terminate Affiliates’ participation in the Affiliates Program and reject service at any time for any reason. Affiliates from some countries may be excluded from the Affiliates Program, and it is invalid where banned by law. ÀWA Marketplace retains the right to accept or reject any Affiliates Program application for any reason.
Commission Rates, Qualifying Sales and Payment
As an Affiliate, you may earn 10% commissions on qualifying sales made on the ÀWA Marketplace website and on the ÀWA Marketplace mobile app (the “App”). Commission rates are established on a case-by-case basis and may differ depending on a number of criteria, including the kind of site and content.
The channels on which you desire to post Affiliate Links must be specified in your Affiliate application on the Affiliates Program platform. If you want to use new channels that haven’t been approved as an Affiliate after you’ve been approved, you must first get approval from ÀWA Marketplace.
Affiliates are not able to earn money from their own purchases. Their commission does not include taxes or discounts. Affiliates will be able to design their own vouchers at some point in the future. Once their account has been active for 30 days, they will be paid automatically every day to their PayPal account.
To validate qualified sales, the Affiliates Program platform employs browser cookies. The cookies on the ÀWA Marketplace website are valid for thirty (30) days, while the cookies on the App are valid for seven (7) days (the “Cookie Period”). Commissions are paid on qualifying sales made through an Authorized Channel during the Cookie Period. This means that as long as the Affiliate was the last referrer, an Affiliate can receive a commission for a qualifying sale made within thirty (30) days on the ÀWA Marketplace website, or seven (7) days in the case of a sale made via the App, of a user clicking the Affiliate Link in an Authorized Channel. If a user hits many Affiliate Links before making a qualified transaction, the commission will be sent to the last Affiliate Link clicked. If the user’s last click before completing a purchase was through a paid channel, such as Google PPC, or if a paid click travels directly to an affiliate link, the transaction will not be considered a qualified sale, and the Affiliate will not be paid a commission.
The applicable commission rate is multiplied by the price of the qualifying sales to compute commissions (excluding shipping costs and taxes). On sales that are canceled, refunded, or returned, as well as any transaction that ends in a chargeback, commissions are not paid. For fraudulent behavior, commissions are subject to scrutiny and other restrictions. For any reasonable cause, ÀWA Marketplace maintains the right to withhold commissions. Any taxes owed as a result of your participation in ÀWA Marketplace’s Affiliates Program are exclusively your responsibility.
ÀWA Marketplace may update, suspend, or cancel an Affiliate Link at any time, with or without warning, or remove, edit, or modify any image or banner ad supplied by ÀWA Marketplace through the Affiliates Program platform. Affiliate undertakes to comply with ÀWA Marketplace’s request to delete, amend, or modify any Affiliate Link, graphic, or banner ad supplied through the Affiliates Program platform.
Program Restrictions
In ÀWA Marketplace’s sole judgment, affiliates who breach any of the following program conditions may be suspended or removed from the Affiliates Program and may not receive commissions:
Social Media and Sharing
Affiliates are only allowed to publish Affiliate Links on Authorized Channels that are linked to their website URL, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Some social media platforms, such as Pinterest and Tumblr, disallow affiliate links. It is the Affiliate’s obligation to follow and adhere by each Social Media platform’s terms and conditions, including any affiliate link rules, while submitting material. Affiliates have the option of sharing Affiliate Links with their email subscribers. Furthermore, Affiliates may only utilize ÀWA Marketplace’s Creative Assets and Affiliate Links in the Authorized Channels, which do not include closed or private group pages.
Use of Coupon Codes
Affiliates may only advertise promotional codes given by the ÀWA Marketplace and made available through the Affiliates Program platform. Expiration dates should be displayed next to coupon codes, and codes should be withdrawn or explicitly labelled as expired on or soon before the expiration dates. Affiliates who show expired codes but do not label them as expired risk getting kicked out of the Affiliates Program.
Paid Search
You agree not to bid on any keywords including ÀWA Marketplace trademarks for internet search advertising, search engine optimization, or any other purpose in connection with the Affiliates Program. Affiliates may not buy domain names with variants or misspellings of ÀWA Marketplace’s domain that are primarily designed to divert visitors away from the ÀWA Marketplace Site, or domains containing ÀWA Marketplace Trademarks, including variations or misspellings.
Affiliates must adhere to the following guidelines when advertising on any ad platform (such as search engines, content networks, and social networking sites):
- Affiliates are not authorized to bid or appear on searches that include the term “ÀWA Marketplace” (including misspellings or variants), including extended or hybrid searches.
- ÀWA Marketplace trademarks may not be used in any paid search activity, including ad text, copy, or display URLs, by affiliates.
- Affiliates are not allowed to link PPC activity directly to ÀWA Marketplace.com, including utilizing ÀWA Marketplace site as a display URL.
- Affiliates are not authorized to deliver visitors to a website page via automated redirection.
- Affiliates are not authorized to utilize the ÀWA Marketplace name as a sub-domain or sub-folder (including misspellings and variants).
- Under the initial approved affiliate account, affiliates are not permitted to create sub-affiliate accounts.
- Affiliates are not authorized to utilize ÀWA Marketplace trademarks, or any variations thereof, in hidden text or source code, including inside the domain or subdomain of their site.
- Affiliates are not allowed to design their site in a way that diverts internet traffic away from the ÀWA Marketplace Site, including, but not limited to, “keyword stuffing,” which involves using terms in hidden or live text to attract search engine spiders in order to determine higher relevancy or rank than the ÀWA Marketplace Site.
Responsibility for Your Authorized Channels
Your site, including its development, operation, and maintenance, as well as all items that appear on or within it, are exclusively your responsibility. Neither ÀWA Marketplace nor your users are accountable for any material or information on your Authorized Channels, and you agree to defend, indemnify, and keep ÀWA Marketplace harmless from and against all claims pertaining to your site and the content of your social network sites.
You agree to adhere to the following criteria regarding your website, advertising for your website, and social media presence while participating in the Affiliates Program:
- ensuring that all banners, text links, individual product links, and search box advertisements are current with ÀWA Marketplace’s offerings;
- Ensure that the contents and information on your site are accurate and suitable;
- Assuring that the contents and content on your site are not libelous or unlawful, and that they do not violate or infringe on the rights of any third party (including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademarks, privacy, and other personal or property rights);
- Assuring that your website complies with all applicable national, state, regional, and local laws and regulations, including any codes of practice applicable to your marketing and displaying content on your website, and that a website terms of use and privacy policy (“Legal Notices”) are clearly and conspicuously displayed on your website.
If ÀWA Marketplace decides that you have violated any of the terms in this Section, it may suspend your account and/or withhold commissions.
Compliance and Disclosures
You may be subject to different restrictions pertaining to the operation, marketing, and advertising of your site depending on where you are based. It is your obligation as an Affiliate to be aware of and adhere to any applicable restrictions that apply to your site. ÀWA Marketplace is unable to give legal advice; if you are unclear of your duties or have particular issues, we recommend speaking with a legal specialist.
Compliance with Laws
Affiliates must follow all relevant international, federal, state, and local regulations when operating their website and advertising it, whether organic or paid. You acknowledge that you are responsible for any personal information collected from users of your site, and that you must get valid consent (where applicable) from end users before collecting, using, or disclosing this information as required by law.
Affiliates must ensure that all email marketing complies with applicable laws and regulations, such as the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (the “CAN-SPAM Act”), Canada’s anti-spam legislation or “CASL,” the European Directive 2002/58/EC (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) and any local law implementations of such directive including for the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”) and any other applicable anti-spam or related regulations, laws, or industry best practices, related to the dissemination of commercial emails in their country. Emails must not state or imply that the email is being sent by, or on behalf of, ÀÀWA Marketplace, or ÀÀWA Marketplace sellers.
Consumer Disclosures.
As an Affiliate, you must follow the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (“FTC Guidance”), the UK’s Committee of Advertising Practice Codes, including their guidance on Online Affiliate Marketing, or the equivalent laws, rules, regulations, and guidelines in your country, as well as the policies of each social media platform, when disclosing a material connection with ÀWA Marketplace.
The Affiliate must clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationship and material connection (meaning the Affiliate receives payment of commission or other compensation) with ÀWA Marketplace in any and all social media outlets or other digital properties in which the Affiliate communicates about ÀWA Marketplace or products sold on ÀWA Marketplace, or in any other advertising.
Dispute Resolution; General Provisions
Right to Audit; Suspension & Termination.
In respect to your participation in the Affiliates Programs, ÀWA Marketplace reserves the right to audit you, your sites, or actions relating to your sites, including compliance with this Affiliates Policy. If ÀWA Marketplace suspects you have violated this Affiliates Policy or have participated in fraudulent behavior, it may give a warning, conduct an investigation, suspend your account, terminate your Affiliates Program, or withhold commission payments.
Indemnification.
You agree to hold ÀWA Marketplace, its affiliates and subsidiaries, and each of their respective directors, members, officers, employees, contractors, representatives, agents, successors and assigns harmless from and against any and all damages, judgments, settlements, awards, penalties, and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from or related to:
- Your carelessness, intentional misbehavior, or acts or omissions;
- Your infraction of applicable laws, rules, or codes of conduct;
- Your violation of the provisions of this Affiliate Policy or any non-compliance with the requirements of this Affiliate Policy
- Content from your Authorized Channels and other sources.
Limitation of Liability.
Nothing in this Policy, including this Section, is intended to exclude or limit responsibility that cannot be excluded or restricted under applicable law, including, but not limited to, death or bodily injury caused by a party’s negligence or fraudulent activity. Subject to this, and to the fullest extent permissible by applicable law, ÀWA Marketplace will not be liable for any indirect, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with this Policy, the Affiliates Program, even if notified of the possibility of such damages. In addition, subject to the preceding sections of this paragraph, ÀWA Marketplace’s total liability arising out of this Affiliates Policy and your participation in the Affiliates Program will not exceed the total commissions paid to you in the six (6) months prior to any claim. You must file any claims against ÀWA Marketplace under this agreement within 120 days of the conduct or omission that gives rise to such claims.
Representations and Warranties.
You represent and warrant that you have the authority to participate in the Affiliates Program and enter into this Agreement, and that you have sufficient rights to grant any licenses expressly granted herein; you shall, in the performance of all of your rights and obligations under this Agreement, comply with all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and codes of practice; any material or communication displayed or used by you in connection with the Affiliates Program will not violate any applicable laws, rules, regulations, or codes of practice; and any material or communication displayed or used by you will not:
- infringe on the copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual rights of a third party, as well as the right of publicity or privacy of a third party;
- be slanderous or defamatory;
- be vulgar, pornographic, or lewd;
- violate any laws, including those regarding unfair competition, anti-discrimination, consumer financial protection or false advertising;
- encourage violence or stifle hate speech;
- promote discrimination, based on race, age, sex, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender expression or disability; or
- contain viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or other programming routines that are equally dangerous or injurious.
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ÀWA MARKETPLACE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES TO YOU. ÀWA MARKETPLACE MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE AFFILIATES PROGRAM OR ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES SOLD THROUGH THE AFFILIATES PROGRAM, OR ANY COMMISSIONS THAT YOU MAY EARN THROUGH THE AFFILIATES PROGRAM, OR THAT ANY ÀWA MARKETPLACE SITE, AFFILIATES PROGRAM SITE OR NETWORK WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, AND ÀÀWA MARKETPLACE WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR CONSEQUENCES OR ANY INTERRUPTIONS OR ERRORS.
Governing Law, Jurisdiction, and Venue
Without regard to principles governing choice of laws, this Affiliates Policy shall be governed by the laws of Texas. You irrevocably consent to the jurisdiction of the federal or state courts situated in The United States and Texas in any action pertaining to this Policy or your participation in the Affiliates Program.
Contact & Communications
Affiliates may be contacted directly by ÀWA Marketplace with important program changes and incentives. You must send an email to affiliates@awarawa.com. You may still get transactional emails connected to your account or participation in the program even if you opt out of receiving promotional communications.
Any deviations to this Policy are only valid if ÀWA Marketplace clearly states them in writing.
ÀWA Marketplace maintains the right to update or modify this Affiliates Policy’s terms and conditions at any moment. Any updates or alterations will take effect after they are posted on the ÀWA Marketplace Site. You will be believed to have accepted such modifications if you continue to engage in the Affiliates Program after that time.
ÀWA Marketplace’s Affiliate team can be reached at affiliates@awarawa.com