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April 20, 2017

Protecting an Advertiser from an Affiliate Marketer’s Actions

By: wpengine

Sometimes, even a company’s best efforts to comply with the law can’t protect them from liability. This was the case for our client, an advertiser, which promoted its own e-cigarette offer. An internet-based affiliate marketer who marketed our client’s products sent an unsolicited text message to a consumer. Our client recognized the potential legal problems associated with the affiliate’s actions and immediately shut down the relationship. Nonetheless, the affiliate’s action exposed our client to liability in the form of a putative class action lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois. This class action lawsuit, brought under the TCPA, had the potential to cost our client a significant amount of money.

Ifrah Law knew we needed to act quickly, before the case escalated into a class action that would be large enough to bankrupt our client. We were able to demonstrate that the third party vendor’s actions were not authorized or condoned by our client and therefore, we were able to resolve the matter for very little money, before ever answering the complaint. To avoid these types of problems in the future, we subsequently drafted strong contract and terms and conditions for our client’s third-party publishers, which would indemnify our client from future liability for its affiliate’s unauthorized actions.

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