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As an eCommerce business owner, you will likely use marketing to promote your brand’s online presence. Social media platforms, for example, are a crucial tool for marketing your brand, and this can involve working with other brands to boost your eCommerce brand’s popularity. One way to do this is to use online influencer marketing. These are people or brands who can promote your own online business, such as a social media influencer, due to their successful reputation. If you decide to do this for your online business, you must create an influencer contract with them for any influencer marketing campaign. A robust contract will encourage a successful relationship with your influencers and your eCommerce brand through the influencer agreements. This article will explain three legal issues to be aware of when creating an influencer agreement for your eCommerce brand.
Influencer Agreement
Your influencer agreement is a legal contract. It will govern the relationship between your business and the influencer, as well as the work they do for you. It is crucial to get this right as you are both lawfully bound by it. Below are three legal issues to be aware of when creating an influencer agreement for your eCommerce brand.
1. Scope of Services
A legal issue to be aware of when creating an influencer agreement is to ensure your influencer agreement contains the exact services the influencer will provide you with. If this is unclear, it could lead to legal issues, such as a dispute regarding the performance of the contract. Influencers are not limited to promoting your brand through social media channels. They can also promote your brand through other means, such as
- through a collaboration with your eCommerce business;
- by attending events on your behalf; or
- by taking part in a massive advertising campaign which should be detailed in your influencer agreement.
It is also essential to be aware of any time frames in terms of the scope of work when creating your influencer agreement. For example, you may agree that the influencer promotes your brand for a specific time, or you may be more precise in terms of what services they provide on what dates. Ensuring you are aware of this when creating your influencer agreement provides clarity and avoids legal issues at a later stage.
2. Failure to Disclose
You and your influencer must disclose your relationship and be completely transparent about it. This is a crucial legal issue to be aware of when creating your influencer agreement. This is because there are laws about disclosure that you want to ensure you and your influencer understand and comply with.
When creating your influencer agreement, you need to ensure it reflects these laws and is clear about what you expect of your influencer in this light. You must comply with the CAP Code and consumer protection law. The Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) require this of you both.
You could find that you face legal issues if your influencer fails to disclose the partnership with your brand. Many eCommerce businesses fail to realise that they are still liable for reasonable disclosures, so this does not fall solely on their influencer. The ASA applies sanctions to both influencers and businesses like your eCommerce business, who use influencers to promote their brand.
3. Possibility of Disputes
Unfortunately, as with any legal relationship involving a contract, the parties to the agreement may encounter a dispute. This could, therefore, occur between you and your influencer, so it is an important legal issue to be aware of within an influence user agreement. Firstly, you must be sure which parties you are dealing with in your influencer agreement so that if a dispute occurs, it is clear who it is between. Influencer agreements can involve different parties, such as, for example:
- marketing agencies;
- talent management firms;
- PR brands;
- the influencer as an individual; and
- the influence as a brand.
If a dispute arises, the influencer agreement needs to detail how parties to the agreement will deal with a conflict. The details of this will be in a dispute resolution clause.
This checklist will help you identify areas in your business that may need further protection or assistance to ensure you are legally compliant.
Key Takeaways
An influencer agreement is a legal contract containing the details of the relationship between your eCommerce brand and the influencer. You must be aware of potential legal issues when you create an influencer agreement. Legal problems can arise when your online business contracts with an influencer. As such, it is important to make sure the influencer agreement is quite clear. Your influencer agreement should expressly detail what type of services your influencer is providing your eCommerce brand. Further, your online business needs to disclose the relationship between your brand and the influencer to avoid legal issues down the line. This must be a consideration when you create the influencer agreement so you are both clear on your responsibilities. Lastly, your influencer agreement should clearly detail who the parties are and how any disputes between you and the other party will be dealt with.
If you need help understanding the legal issues to be aware of when creating an influencer agreement, contact our experienced eCommerce lawyers as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
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