Rakuten Publisher Compliance and Fraud Checks

Quick Answer Compliance is the work of making sure the partners earning your commission are actually doing legitimate, incremental work — not bidding on your brand name, stuffing cookies, or funnelling traffic through unauthorised sources. A light, regular review of your top earners catches almost all of it.

What it is

Affiliate fraud and abuse rarely look dramatic. They look like a partner that converts suspiciously well, a sudden spike from a new joiner, or a 'discount site' whose real trick is bidding on your brand name so it intercepts customers already searching for you. Compliance is simply the habit of checking that the people you pay earned it honestly.

The everyday version: it's like reviewing expense claims. Most are fine, but you skim them anyway, and the few that don't add up are exactly the ones worth a closer look.

Why it matters

Every fraudulent or non-incremental sale costs you twice — once in commission paid for work that didn't help, and again in the budget that could have gone to a partner who genuinely grows the business. Brand bidding is the classic example: a partner buys ads on your own brand name, intercepts a customer who was already coming to you, and claims commission for a sale you'd have made for free. Left unchecked, it also pushes up your own paid-search costs. A clean programme protects both margin and your brand's search results.

How it works

Vet applicants before approving — look at the partner's actual website, promotional methods, and whether their audience plausibly matches your products.
Set clear programme terms on brand bidding, coupon sourcing, and allowed traffic types, so 'against the rules' is unambiguous.
Watch for red flags: conversion rates far above your norm, near-zero time between click and sale, or a flood of sales from a brand-new partner.
Run regular brand-name searches yourself to catch partners bidding on your trademark in paid search.
Check where voucher and coupon partners are actually sourcing codes — leaked or exclusive-code abuse is a common leak.
Use the network's validation window to reverse sales that turn out to be fraudulent or returned before you pay.
Document any action you take so there's a paper trail if a partner disputes it.

! Common mistakes to avoid

Approving every applicant automatically, which lets low-quality or abusive partners in by default.
Never searching your own brand name, so paid-search brand bidding runs for months unnoticed.
Treating a high conversion rate purely as good news when it can be the clearest signal of non-incremental or fraudulent activity.
Paying out immediately instead of using the validation window to catch returns and bad orders first.

💡 Reporting tips

Build a simple 'outlier' habit: each month, sort partners by conversion rate and by click-to-sale time, and look hard at anything far from your programme average. Genuine partners cluster; fraud and brand abuse show up at the extremes. Cross-reference new partners against their first-month sales — a brand-new joiner posting big numbers immediately deserves a manual look before you validate. Keep notes period to period so a partner creeping toward the edges stands out early.

In practice: a worked example

A new partner joins and posts £20,000 in sales in their first week, converting at 14% when your programme average is 2%. Tempting to celebrate — until you look closer. Click-to-sale times are under five seconds, and a quick search of your brand name shows their ad sitting above your own at the top of the results. They're bidding on your trademark, intercepting people already typing your name. Because you reviewed before validating, you decline the transactions inside the window, update your terms, and remove them — saving thousands in commission for sales you'd have made for free. The lesson: a conversion rate that looks too good to be true usually is.

When to lean in — and when to hold back

Investigate a partner when	Probably fine when
Conversion rate is wildly above your programme average	Conversion sits in the normal range for their partner type
Sales appear seconds after the click, repeatedly	Click-to-sale timing looks like real shopping behaviour
They appear in paid search on your brand name	They drive traffic from their own content and audience
A brand-new partner posts big numbers instantly	Growth builds gradually as they ramp placements

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Brand bidding is when a partner buys search ads on your own brand name to intercept customers already looking for you, then claims commission for a sale you'd likely have made anyway. It wastes commission and raises your own ad costs.

Look for outliers: conversion rates far above normal, near-instant click-to-sale times, or sudden volume from a brand-new partner. None proves fraud alone, but together they justify a closer look.

Within the validation window, yes — you can decline transactions that turn out to be fraudulent, returned, or against your terms before commission is paid out.