Home/Affiliate programme/Agreement
Affiliate Agreement
In short
- 50% of a referred customer's first payment and 30% of every renewal, for as long as they stay.
- Worked out on what we actually receive, after card or app store fees and VAT.
- Each commission is held for 60 days, then paid on the 1st of the month once you have £20 or more payable.
- Refunds and chargebacks cancel commission. No commission on yourself. Promote honestly.
- Affiliate managers earn a 10% override on the same net revenue as their direct team, paid on top of the team's commission.
This agreement is between you (the “affiliate”) and ROOT VPN LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (“ROOT VPN”, “we”, “us”). You accept it when you tick the box on the application form, and it applies from the day we approve your application. If an affiliate manager created your account for you, you accept it when you first use your referral link or portal. We record the version you accepted and when.
1. Joining the programme
We review every application and may accept or decline it at our discretion. Once approved you get a unique referral link and a private portal link. Your portal link signs you in, so keep it to yourself. You must be at least 18 and able to enter into this agreement.
2. Referrals and tracking
- Your link carries your referral code (
?ref=). When someone arrives through it, the code is kept in their browser for 90 days. - A customer counts as your referral when they create a ROOT VPN account within that window. The first referral code wins and attribution does not change afterwards.
- You earn commission when a referred customer pays for Plus or Pro, on the website or in the app.
3. Commission
- First payment: 50% of the net amount of the referred customer's first payment.
- Renewals: 30% of the net amount of every later payment by that customer, for as long as they keep paying and you remain in the programme.
- Net amount means what the customer paid, less the card processing fee we were charged, less VAT or any other sales tax. For App Store and Google Play purchases it means the store's reported proceeds after its fee and tax; where the store does not report them, we use 70% of the price.
- Commission is calculated in pence and rounded down. Current prices are Plus £3.99 a month or £39.99 a year and Pro £8.99 a month or £89.99 a year.
- We may agree a different rate with you in writing. A change to your rate only applies to payments made after the change.
4. Hold, payouts and tax
- Each commission is held for 60 days from the customer's payment. This covers our 45-day money-back guarantee and the time banks take to raise chargebacks. After the hold it becomes payable.
- We pay on the 1st of each month when your payable balance is £20 or more. A smaller balance rolls over to the next month.
- Payouts are made in pounds sterling through Stripe to the payout account you set up from your portal. Stripe may ask you to verify your identity. Until your payout account is ready, your balance is kept for you.
- You are responsible for any tax due on what you earn. If you are VAT registered, tell us before your first payout.
5. Refunds and chargebacks
If a payment is refunded in full or charged back, the commission on that payment is cancelled. If we have already paid it to you, the same amount is deducted from your future payouts. Partial goodwill refunds do not change your commission.
6. Promoting ROOT VPN
You may promote ROOT VPN anywhere honest: videos, articles, newsletters, social posts and communities where links are welcome. You must:
- make it clear that you earn commission from your link, as the UK CAP Code and other advertising rules require;
- describe ROOT VPN accurately. Say “no activity logs”, never “no logs” or “zero logs”. Do not claim it makes anyone 100% anonymous, is military grade or unhackable, or can unblock any service. For streaming, say it helps people access their own subscriptions while travelling;
- use only real reviews and real experience, and never invent numbers, ratings or testimonials;
- use our name and logo only as we provide them, and never suggest you are ROOT VPN or speak for us.
7. What is not allowed
- Self referral. No commission is paid on your own purchases, or on accounts that share your email address, payment card or connection, or that you control. We check this automatically and the payment is recorded as not eligible.
- Bidding on “ROOT VPN”, “rootvpn” or close variations in search ads, or using them in domain names, app names or social handles.
- Spam, unsolicited messages, and posting your link where the community rules forbid it.
- Cookie stuffing, forced clicks, hidden links, bots, fake sign-ups, or paying or rewarding people to sign up without our written agreement.
- Publishing discount codes or offers we have not given you.
- Promoting ROOT VPN for anything illegal or against our Acceptable Use Policy.
Commission earned through any of these is not payable, and we may end your participation.
8. Reviews and payout pauses
To protect the programme we watch for unusual activity, such as a sudden spike in sign-ups or a high refund rate. When we see it we may pause your payouts while we review it, and we will tell you. If the activity is genuine, payouts resume with nothing lost.
9. Your data and your referrals' data
We use your name, email, application details, payout details and the connection address you applied from to run the programme and prevent fraud, as described in our privacy policy. Your portal shows counts and amounts only. We never share your referrals' personal details with you.
10. Changes and ending
- We may change this agreement with at least 30 days' notice by email. Commission you have already earned is always paid under the terms in force when it was earned.
- You can leave at any time by emailing us. We can end your participation with 30 days' notice, or straight away for a breach of this agreement.
- When you leave, payable commission you have earned is paid at the next payout run, unless it came from a breach. Renewal commission stops from the date you leave.
11. Affiliate managers
We may make an approved affiliate a manager. We do this by hand, after talking with you, and we can end it with 30 days' notice, or straight away for a breach. This section applies to managers and to the affiliates in a manager's team.
- Your team. Your team is the affiliates you create from your portal, the people who apply through your recruit link and are approved by us, and anyone we place in your team. We review recruit link applications in the usual way.
- Override. Each time a member of your team earns commission on a payment, you earn an override of 10% of the same net amount, unless we agree a different rate with you in writing. We pay the override on top of your team member's commission. It is never deducted from what they earn.
- One level only. You earn an override only on your direct team members' own commission. There is no override on the team of someone in your team, and no override on an override.
- Same rules. The override is held for 60 days, paid on the same monthly schedule and threshold as your own commission, and cancelled or deducted in the same way if the payment is refunded or charged back. No override is paid on your own purchases or on accounts you control, and the override is paused if your payouts are paused.
- When it stops. The override on a team member stops from the date they leave the programme or your team, are paused, or are removed for a breach. Override already earned is paid under these terms, unless it came from a breach.
- Your responsibilities. You must only add people who have agreed to join, with their own email address, and make sure each of them has read this agreement. You are responsible for making sure your team promotes ROOT VPN within section 6 and 7. If a team member breaks the rules and you knew or should have known, we may withhold the override on their referrals and end your manager status.
- Team data. Your portal shows each team member's name, email, referral code, status, sign-up and paying customer counts and commission amounts, so you can support them. Use this only to manage your team. Team members never see your override.
- Limits. You can add up to 20 team members a day and 500 in total from your portal. Ask us if you need more.
12. General
You take part as an independent business, not as our employee, agent or partner. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law. Otherwise, our total liability to you under this agreement is limited to the commission paid or payable to you in the previous 12 months. This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
13. Contact
Questions about the programme, your commission or your payouts: affiliates@rootvpn.app.