Optimate Network Code of Conduct

1. Who this binds

This Code binds every partner promoting through the network, and every brand running a programme on it. Where a brand sets stricter rules in its own programme terms, the stricter rule wins. Where a brand tries to set a looser one, this Code wins.

Nothing in this Code replaces the law that applies to you. It is a floor, not a ceiling, and it does not make Optimate responsible for your compliance.

2. Disclosure

Every promotion you publish through the network must carry a clear, prominent advertising label. This is your own legal obligation as the publisher, in every country we operate in, and it is a condition of staying on the network.

• Put it first.At the start of the caption or description, before any “more” or “see more” truncation, and not at the end of a block of hashtags.
• Put it where the decision is made. On video, before the viewer commits to watching — in the title or an opening card, not only in the description. On Stories, at the beginning. On a Pin, at the start of the description.
• Do not hide it. A bio-only disclosure, a link to a disclosure page, a previous post, or a note in your terms of use is not a disclosure.
• A discount code is not a disclosure.Neither is a brand tag, an @ mention, or the word “affiliate” on its own.
• Disclose per post. Every post that can earn needs its own label, including each Story frame and each repost.

Where a post reaches audiences in more than one country — which, on social media, is most posts — meet the strictest standard that applies to any of them. In practice that means the UK standard below.

3. Disclosure by country

The rules differ, and they conflict. A label that satisfies the US regulator can breach the UK code. This table is the practical difference; the safe default for a global audience is the UK row.

Acceptable labels

Placement, by platform

4. Platform tools

Where a platform provides its own paid-partnership or branded-content tool, you must use it in addition to the written label, not instead of it. The tools are not consistently visible to every viewer, and the ASA has said its own research suggests a written label is still needed.

You must also comply with each platform’s own rules. A platform can remove your content or your account for an undisclosed promotion whatever this Code says, and we cannot appeal that on your behalf.

5. Traffic and tracking

Attribution only works if every recorded click and code use came from a real person who genuinely chose to act. You must not:

• Cookie stuff or force clicks.Tracking may only fire where the user has voluntarily and intentionally interacted with your content. No hidden iframes, no 1×1 pixels, no auto-redirects, no pop-unders, no loading a brand’s page invisibly.
• Generate artificial activity. No bots, scripts, click farms, paid-to-click traffic, incentivised clicks, VPN or proxy farms, or AI tools used to simulate clicks, impressions, leads or sales.
• Self-refer. You may not earn on your own purchases, or on purchases by a business you control, a household member, or anyone acting at your direction to generate commission.
• Manipulate attribution.No code stacking, no overwriting another partner’s attribution at the point of checkout, no intercepting traffic already on its way to a brand.
• Distribute through software. No toolbars, browser extensions, adware or injected content without our prior written agreement.
• Resell your access.You may not operate as a sub-network, syndicate your links or codes to third parties you do not control, or place them on coupon, cashback or deal aggregators without the brand’s written agreement.

6. AI-generated content

You may use AI to help make content. You may not use it to fake a person.

• No AI-generated or synthetic personas presented as real consumers, creators or customers.
• No AI-generated reviews, testimonials, before-and-after results, or endorsements from people who do not exist.
• No AI-generated likeness, voice or image of a real person without their documented permission.
• No AI-generated claim about a product you have not verified against what the brand actually says.

Where your content includes a realistic AI-generated or AI-manipulated image, video or audio of a person, place or event — a deepfake — and it reaches an audience in the EU, you must disclose that it is artificially generated, clearly and at the point the viewer first sees it. This is a legal requirement under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, which has applied since 2 August 2026. Some EU states impose similar labelling rules for edited commercial imagery; France in particular requires retouched or AI-altered body imagery in advertising to be labelled.

7. Reviews and testimonials

UK law changed materially in April 2025. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, submitting a fake review, or a review that hides the fact it was incentivised, is banned outright — the regulator does not have to prove anyone was misled. Offering services that facilitate that is separately banned.

• If you review a product you were given, paid for, or can earn from, say so in the review itself.
• Never review a product you have not used, and never present a supplied script as your own experience.
• A brand may not condition an incentive on the review being positive, and you must not accept one that is. An incentive for an honest, disclosed review is allowed; an incentive for a five-star review is not.
• You may not solicit, aggregate or resell reviews on a brand’s behalf through the network.

8. Paid search and brand terms

Bidding on a brand’s own name in paid search is a commercial decision for that brand, not a blanket rule. Each programme states its position, and the default is not permitted.

• Unless a programme says otherwise, do not bid on the brand’s name, its product names, its misspellings, or any confusingly similar term.
• Never use a brand’s name in your display URL, or write an ad that could be read as coming from the brand itself.
• Never bid on a third party’s trade mark you have no right to use.
• Do not register domains, social handles, app listings or business profiles using a brand’s name or branding in a way that suggests you are them.

9. Email and messaging

• No unsolicited bulk email, SMS, DMs or messaging-app broadcasts. In the UK and EU, marketing to individuals needs their prior consent, or a genuine existing customer relationship for your own similar products — never a bought list.
• Every marketing message must identify you, say it is marketing, and carry a working unsubscribe. Honour opt-outs immediately, and in any event within five business days.
• Do not send from an address or sender name that suggests the message comes from the brand or from Optimate.
• Do not post promotional links into forums, comment sections, review threads, community groups or Q&A sites where they are off-topic or against that community’s rules.

10. Content standards

You must not promote through the network on or alongside content that:

• is illegal, or facilitates anything illegal;
• is hateful, harassing, or targets people for a protected characteristic;
• is sexually explicit, or is directed at children;
• infringes anyone’s copyright, trade mark or other rights;
• makes claims about health, weight, income or investment returns that you cannot substantiate;
• misrepresents what a product does, invents results, or quotes figures the brand has not published.

11. Restricted sectors

Some sectors carry criminal or licensing liability that falls on the person who publishes the promotion. If you promote in one of these, you are responsible for holding whatever permission the law requires — we do not hold it for you, and a brand telling you it is fine is not a defence.

12. Rules for brands

A brand running a programme on the network must:

• give partners accurate product information, and correct it promptly when it changes;
• not require, encourage or reward undisclosed promotion, and not offer an incentive conditional on a review being positive;
• set a validation period and decide conversions inside it, on the grounds allowed by the Brand Terms and no others;
• not decline a conversion it cannot evidence, and not use decline as a way of deferring payment;
• keep its tracking working, and tell us promptly when its checkout, domain or discount codes change;
• not approach a partner it met through the network to move the relationship off it in order to avoid the network fee;
• hold whatever licence or authorisation its sector requires, and not list a programme it is not lawfully allowed to advertise.

13. Enforcement

Where we believe this Code has been broken, we may:

• ask you to fix it, within a stated time;
• hold, decline or reverse the specific commission connected with the breach;
• suspend your participation in one programme, or across the network;
• terminate your participation, on the notice the Partner Terms or Brand Terms require.

We will tell you what we believe happened and give you a chance to respond, unless we are legally prevented from doing so or the delay would expose someone to fraud. We will not hold or reverse commission we have no reasonable basis to connect to the breach. If you think we have got it wrong, use the complaints route in section 15 of the Partner Terms.

14. Changes to this Code

We update this Code as fraud methods and advertising rules change. Changes that add a new obligation on you take effect 30 days after we notify you, and you may leave the network in that period if you do not accept them. Changes that clarify an existing rule, or that we are legally required to make, take effect immediately.

The version and date of the Code in force are shown at the top of this page.