May 13, 2024
question
Assalamu Alaykom. May Allah accept all that He is doing for you. I want to know if affiliate marketing is permissible. Affiliate marketing is a popular way of promoting web businesses where affiliates get paid for every visitor, subscriber, and/or customer brought by their efforts. In simple terms, affiliates get paid for referring sales or customers to another business website. The products we promote on our website can be either digital products (e.g. e-books and software) or physical products (e.g. electronic products, health products). Business owners may pay a referral fee as a percentage of sales/profits or pay a fixed commission rate. Is this permissible? My second question is, there are some companies that pay affiliates by PayPal account, but I don't have a PayPal account because my country does not support PayPal. So I created a joint venture with someone who has PayPal and we made a deal that I would pay him 20% of the money he receives for me and the remaining 80% would be paid by wire transfer. Is this type of transaction permissible?
answer
Wa alaykum as-salaam wa rahmatullahhi wa barakatu.
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
All praise and gratitude is due to Allah and may Allah's peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa,
The commission you are asking about is allowed provided there is no deception or fraud in the transaction.
His answer to your question is Professor Monzer Cuffe “The Islamic economy is a complex issue, and we need to be proactive in order to protect it,” said Professor of Islamic Finance and Economics at Qatar University's School of Islamic Studies.
If the affiliate commission is a known and common practice in the industry and does not mislead potential customers into making a purchase, it is permitted.
You are also allowed to give a percentage to the person who collects from PayPal on your behalf.
Almighty Allah knows best.
