Can a company I am contracted to make me pay back affiliate commission?

TBagpuss

I think that it would be reasonable for you to state that you had clear and unambigious consent from the manager to use the link and so you do not consider it appropriate to repay any of the commission earned to date, but that if they no longer wish to permit that, you can of coruse refrain from using your person in in any company documentaion moving forward, so in future you will only recieve income from any use of your affiliate link on third party sites.
 
If it is no't possible to chenge or remove the existing link in the company documentatio  then suggest tp them that they prodice a monthly statement, moving forward, breaking down what eleent of the affiliate payment relates to those links and what to other sources, and you will agree to ony receiving the income from the other sources.

If they are saying that you cannot reciev any payment at all movingforawrd then review your charing rates but also remove your link from anywhere you can. 

Obvisouly it depends a bit on how easy it will be or you to find another job / contract, and whether you have any eviednedene of the permission given tto you by the former manager. However, I think it would generlaly be reaonable for you to assume that the manager hadthe authiority to agree that with you and for you to argue that that reated a variation to your contract with the comapny on which you relied - i.e. that it would be inappropraite to expect you to repay money already earned but that you are open to accepting a further revision moving forward. - 

tightauldgit

Ath_Wat said:

tightauldgit said:

My initial thoughts are that including the affiliate link in company documentation is something that shouldn't have happened. It sounds unprofessional at a minimum. However, given that you got permission to do it from a manager within the company I don't see how its your fault or how they can ask for the money back now. 

How they can ask for the money back now is if the OP, as they seem to imply, has no proof at all that anyone within the company asked them to do it.

Presumably the docs were signed off/proof read/approved by someone prior to publishing. And its been clear for sometime that it was happening. The ex-manager could also be contacted by the employer to confirm or even act as a witness if it came to court. 

As I say, perfectly fine for the company to say they don't want to do that anymore and ask for it to be removed at their expense. But not really credible to claim that the business didn't know it was happening before now, and since they did know they could have queried it at any point.  

Ath_Wat

TBagpuss said:

I think that it would be reasonable for you to state that you had clear and unambigious consent from the manager to use the link and so you do not consider it appropriate to repay any of the commission earned to date, but that if they no longer wish to permit that, you can of coruse refrain from using your person in in any company documentaion moving forward, so in future you will only recieve income from any use of your affiliate link on third party sites.
 
If it is no't possible to chenge or remove the existing link in the company documentatio  then suggest tp them that they prodice a monthly statement, moving forward, breaking down what eleent of the affiliate payment relates to those links and what to other sources, and you will agree to ony receiving the income from the other sources.

If they are saying that you cannot reciev any payment at all movingforawrd then review your charing rates but also remove your link from anywhere you can. 

Obvisouly it depends a bit on how easy it will be or you to find another job / contract, and whether you have any eviednedene of the permission given tto you by the former manager. However, I think it would generlaly be reaonable for you to assume that the manager hadthe authiority to agree that with you and for you to argue that that reated a variation to your contract with the comapny on which you relied - i.e. that it would be inappropraite to expect you to repay money already earned but that you are open to accepting a further revision moving forward. - 

Is this not dependent on them having at least some evidence that a manager agreed it?  

Ath_Wat

tightauldgit said:

Ath_Wat said:

tightauldgit said:

My initial thoughts are that including the affiliate link in company documentation is something that shouldn't have happened. It sounds unprofessional at a minimum. However, given that you got permission to do it from a manager within the company I don't see how its your fault or how they can ask for the money back now. 

How they can ask for the money back now is if the OP, as they seem to imply, has no proof at all that anyone within the company asked them to do it.

Presumably the docs were signed off/proof read/approved by someone prior to publishing. And its been clear for sometime that it was happening. The ex-manager could also be contacted by the employer to confirm or even act as a witness if it came to court. 

As I say, perfectly fine for the company to say they don't want to do that anymore and ask for it to be removed at their expense. But not really credible to claim that the business didn't know it was happening before now, and since they did know they could have queried it at any point.  

Well, not necessarily, to the proofreading.  Whoever was doing that, if it wasn't the OP themself,  might not have been anyone who did anything other than click the link to make sure it went to the right place.

And yes, contacting the manager in question would be be proof  if they confirm it.  They might not, for a wide variety of reasons.

I don't think it's at all not credible for them to say they have just found out.  I mean, apart from the one "very nice manager" who apparently agreed it, they have just found out, of they'd not have allowed it.

TBagpuss

Ath_Wat said:

TBagpuss said:

I think that it would be reasonable for you to state that you had clear and unambigious consent from the manager to use the link and so you do not consider it appropriate to repay any of the commission earned to date, but that if they no longer wish to permit that, you can of coruse refrain from using your person in in any company documentaion moving forward, so in future you will only recieve income from any use of your affiliate link on third party sites.
 
If it is no't possible to chenge or remove the existing link in the company documentatio  then suggest tp them that they prodice a monthly statement, moving forward, breaking down what eleent of the affiliate payment relates to those links and what to other sources, and you will agree to ony receiving the income from the other sources.

If they are saying that you cannot reciev any payment at all movingforawrd then review your charing rates but also remove your link from anywhere you can. 

Obvisouly it depends a bit on how easy it will be or you to find another job / contract, and whether you have any eviednedene of the permission given tto you by the former manager. However, I think it would generlaly be reaonable for you to assume that the manager hadthe authiority to agree that with you and for you to argue that that reated a variation to your contract with the comapny on which you relied - i.e. that it would be inappropraite to expect you to repay money already earned but that you are open to accepting a further revision moving forward. - 

Is this not dependent on them having at least some evidence that a manager agreed it?  

I think that OP can state it whether or not ey have additional proof. I thin kthe fact that it has not previously been quesried and that the commission has been being paid maight well be seen as evidence that it was agreed or at the very least, that OP had a reasonable belief that it was agreed.

Obviosuly if OP wants to carry on working for them then they may want to be more conciliatory