No webserver is 100% resilient and human errors occur, especially when a website is redesigned or a new ecommerce system or payment provider is integrated.

As a result there will be times when either a) a merchant website is unavailable / unable to complete e-commerce transactions or b) although the website is operational, the affiliate tracking code has been inadvertently removed or corrupted. In either instance recommended best practice should be for compensation to be offered to affiliates.

The following are suggested best practice guidelines:

1. Compensation should be payable where the website and/or tracking has been out of operation for a continuous period in excess of 1 hour during the hours of 6am to midnight or in excess of 2 hours during the hours of midnight to 6am.

2. The compensation should be calculated based on an affiliates performance in the corresponding period in the previous week (or previous month in the case of a prolonged outage)

i.e. If the tracking is out of operation from 2pm until 4pm on Tuesday afternoon and on the previous Tuesday afternoon during that time an affiliate made 3 sales earning 10 commission then the affiliate should be awarded 10 compensation.

In any event, tracking downtime should be communicated to all affiliates as soon as is reasonably practicable. Commission should be credited in line with standard payment policies.

Compensation is not normally payable to affiliates for routine maintenance providing prior notice is provided to affiliates preferably at least 7 days and in any event at least 24 hours before such maintenance takes place. Scheduled maintenance with less than 24 hours notice should be treated as unscheduled maintenance for the purposes of compensation calculation.