Affiliate takes legal action against programme over retroactive quotas
The owner of affiliate portal Online Casino Reviewer last night initiated legal proceedings against an affiliate programme for inserting a clause into its T&Cs that defaults affiliates to 10% commission if they failed to send the required number of players over a two-month period.
Bath-based affiliate Dave Sawyer launched the legal action against Interactive Technology Corporation, which he claims is the parent company of Affiliate Edge, after he received no response to his demand for payment of $6,335.80 (£4,800).
This is the amount Sawyer claims his company Bath Rock Media Ltd would have received for the months of June and July 2017 had the retroactively applied clause not been inserted into the terms and conditions near the start of this year. The change was not directly communicated to affiliate partners in the programme, Sawyer claims.
Clause 4.7, added to the Affiliate Edge T&Cs in February 2017, stipulates that: “Affiliates who send 5 FTD’s or less over a 2 calendar month period collectively will be marked as ‘non active’ and will be reduced to 10% default commission.”
Sawyer said in a statement on his site this morning: “The action I am taking is I believe unprecedented when it comes to iGaming Affiliates. Affiliates should not have to stand for retroactive terms and I am hoping the courts will see it the same way as I and also my peers do.”
Sawyer launched last night’s legal action to recover the monies after a claim for payment within 30 days went unheeded by ITC.
Affiliate Edge, formerly CWC Affiliates, is the programme for eight casino brands running on the BeSoftware and Real Time Gaming platforms, including Club World, Lucky Red and Aladdin’s Gold.
Contacted by iGB for comment, Affiliate Edge Manager Darren Brenner provided a copy of a letter sent to Sawyer dated 25 September in which the company called the casino affiliate's financial claim “groundless” and stated that they had acted in accordance with Clause 8.5 of the terms and conditions of predecessor programme CWC Affiliates that Sawyer signed up to back in 2006, under which “agreement may be modified by posting the new agreement on to the site.”
The letter also stated that the agreement is governed by the laws of Curacao, where Affiliate Edge is based, so Sawyer “cannot issue proceedings in England and should you do so you will be liable for costs.”
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