Influencer contract checklist: 10 brand deal clauses to read before you sign

This page is for the creator's side of a deal with a brand: a creator, UGC creator or creator-freelancer paid to make or post content. For each clause it says what the clause controls, what to check, and which statute, tax form or platform tool applies where one does. Every statute and platform page linked here was read on 28 or 29 September 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. A lawyer in your country can read the contract you actually have.

How to put a price on each of these items, from extra revision rounds to exclusivity, is in how to price a sponsored post. Contracts where you run a client's social media accounts, rather than make content for a brand, are a different document and are not covered here.

The ten clauses on one page

Checked 2026-09-28

What should the deliverables clause list?

This clause defines finished. Anything it leaves vague comes back later as an unpaid revision.

• One line per deliverable: platform, format (Reel, Story frame, TikTok video, Short), length and count.
• Draft due dates and the posting window, as dates with a time zone.
• How long each post stays live, and whether you may archive it afterwards.
• What the caption must contain: the brand's handle, a link, a discount code, a hashtag.
• What proves delivery: the post URL, and any insight screenshots the brand wants, with the day they are due.

In a UGC-only deal the deliverable is a file, not a post on your account. The posting window and the label clause drop out, and usage (clause 4) carries most of the value.

New York's Freelance Isn't Free Act, for the freelancers it covers (see the payment section), requires a written contract that itemizes all services, their value, and the rate and method of pay. It also has to state the payment date or how that date is set, and the date by which you must submit a list of services rendered (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §1412).

What does the approval clause need to say?

Approval decides how many times you redo the work and how long your calendar stays blocked.

• The number of revision rounds included, and the price of each extra round.
• The brand's deadline to respond, and what happens after it: the draft counts as approved, or the posting window moves.
• What counts as a revision (changes inside the agreed brief) and what counts as a new brief (a new script, location or product).
• One named approver, so feedback from two departments does not become two rounds.
• Whether approval covers the caption and the disclosure, so a post the brand approved without a label is not your breach alone.

No statute sets any of this. It is whatever the contract says.

Who applies the paid-partnership label?

The creator does, in the app, on both Instagram and TikTok. The contract should say so, name the exact brand account to tag, and spell out any disclosure wording the brand wants on top of the platform label.

• Instagram. Meta's Branded Content Policies require the paid partnership label to tag the brand on organic branded content. The label works in Feed, Stories, broadcast channels, Live, Reels and Instagram videos. The first time you tag a brand, Instagram sends the brand a request. Until the brand approves, the label shows without the brand's name; if the brand denies it, the label is removed. The brand needs a professional account and you need branded content turned on (Instagram Help Center).
• TikTok. Content that promotes a brand, product or service must have the content disclosure setting turned on, or TikTok may remove or restrict it. Content for another business is labelled "Paid partnership"; content for your own brand is labelled "Promotional content". TikTok says the setting does not affect distribution in feeds. Once a post is published its label can't be changed, and the fix for a wrong choice is to delete the post and publish it again (TikTok Support).

Three contract points follow. Approving the Instagram tag request is a step only the brand can take, so the approval clause should include it. A TikTok label error forces a delete and re-post, so the takedown clause should say who bears that. And Instagram's help centre says sponsored posts "aren't compatible with scheduled content at this time" (Instagram Help, checked 2026-09-29), so a labelled Instagram post goes out by hand: agree a posting window, not a to-the-minute time.

The platform label is not the whole job. The US Federal Trade Commission tells influencers not to assume a platform's disclosure tool is good enough, to consider using it in addition to their own disclosure, and that making the disclosure is the influencer's responsibility (FTC, Disclosures 101 for social media influencers). This page does not compare disclosure law between countries.

Usage and ownership: licence or transfer?

This clause decides what the brand may do with your content after the campaign: repost it, run it as an ad, cut it into new ads, keep it forever. The first split is between a licence and a transfer of copyright.

• A licence lets the brand use the content in stated ways while you keep the copyright. Check the media (organic reposts, paid ads, website, email, print), the term, the territory, whether the brand may edit, and whether raw files are included.
• A transfer (assignment) hands over the copyright. In the US, a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights or an authorized agent (17 U.S.C. §204(a)). In the UK, an assignment is not effective unless it is in writing and signed by or on behalf of the assignor, and it can be partial: limited to some rights, or to part of the copyright period (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.90).
• "Work made for hire" wording goes further: the brand becomes the author (17 U.S.C. §201(b)). For commissioned work, US law allows this only in listed categories, which include a work commissioned for use as part of an audiovisual work, and only if both parties expressly agree to it in a written instrument they both sign (17 U.S.C. §101). If the phrase is in your contract, ask whether a licence would cover what the brand needs.

Partnership Ads and Spark Ads codes are usage grants of their own. Usage rights and ad codes maps each grant to what the brand can do with it, how long it lasts and how you end it.

Exclusivity: how wide, and for how long?

Exclusivity controls who else can pay you while the deal runs, and often after it.

• Scope. A list of named competitors is narrower than a category ("no skincare brands"). Read which one you are signing.
• Term. Start and end dates, and whether they count from signing or from posting.
• Platforms and territory covered.
• Carve-outs. Products you already use on camera, older posts, and unpaid mentions.
• Match with usage. If the brand may run your post as an ad for longer than the exclusivity lasts, your face can appear in its ads while you post for a competitor. Check whether the two periods line up, and whether the longer one is paid for.
• A separate fee. The pricing guide treats exclusivity as its own line item.

No statute sets exclusivity terms.

Payment terms: when is a brand deal payment late?

This clause decides when you are paid, which event starts the clock, and what late payment costs the brand.

• The event the due date counts from: signing, posting, the invoice, or the brand's internal approval of the invoice. "30 days from posting" and "30 days from invoice approval" can be weeks apart.
• Any upfront share, and whether the rest depends on performance.
• Invoice rules: purchase-order number, the legal entity to bill, the brand's cut-off date for invoices.
• Currency, transfer fees, and who pays them.
• Interest and recovery costs: whether the contract lowers or removes them.

Three statutes set defaults where they apply.

Checked 2026-09-28

Three notes on the table:

• EU. A directive binds member states. The rule you invoke is a member state's national law implementing it (which state's depends on the governing law, below); those laws had to be in force by 16 March 2013 (Art. 12). "At least 8 points" means a member state may set a higher rate.
• UK. GOV.UK says a payment is late 30 days after the invoice or the work, whichever is later, if no date was agreed, and that an agreed date must usually be within 60 days for business transactions (GOV.UK).
• New York. The Act added Article 44-A to the General Business Law on 28 August 2024. The hiring party must keep the contract for at least six years (§1412). Complaints go to the New York State Attorney General, a freelancer can also sue directly (§1414), and the Department of Labor publishes a model contract (NY Department of Labor).

Outside these three, check whether your own country, state or city has a similar rule. This page does not survey the others.

Worked example: a UK invoice paid 45 days late

Example inputs, hypothetical: a £2,400 invoice, an agreed payment day, paid 45 days after that day. Both sides act in the course of a business, UK law governs, and the contract sets no interest rate of its own.

Fixed sum, debt £1,000 to £9,999.99 ............  £70.00
8% part:  2,400 × 0.08 × 45 ÷ 365 ...............  £23.67
Base-rate part: 2,400 × B × 45 ÷ 365 ............   £2.96 per percentage point of B
                                                  ========
Owed before the base-rate part ..................  £93.67

B is the Bank of England base rate that applies to the debt; GOV.UK links the current and previous rates from its interest page. The Act provides for simple interest (s.1); counting it per day over a 365-day year is the method GOV.UK's own example uses. To recompute with your own numbers: invoice × (0.08 + B) × days late ÷ 365, plus the fixed sum for your band.

Kill fee: what if the brand cancels?

A kill fee is what you are paid when the brand ends the deal for its own reasons. Without one, a cancellation after filming leaves you with the production cost and no fee.

• The amount at each stage: after signing, after the draft is delivered, after approval. Stated as a share of the fee or a fixed sum.
• What counts as cancelling, including a postponement past a set number of days.
• When the kill fee is due, on the same payment terms as the main fee.
• Rights after a kill: check that the brand gets no use of drafts or footage unless it pays the full fee.
• Gifted product: whether you keep it or send it back.

None of the statutes on this page sets a kill fee. It exists if the contract says so.

Morality and takedown: when can the brand end the deal or pull a post?

A morality clause lets the brand end the deal over conduct it considers harmful to its name. A takedown clause lets it require a post to come down.

• Trigger. Defined conduct (a criminal charge, a breach of the platform's rules) or anything the brand "in its sole discretion" finds damaging. The narrower and more objective the trigger, the less it depends on the brand's mood.
• Look-back. Whether posts from before the contract count.
• Consequence. No further payments, or repayment of fees already paid. Repayment is the term with the most money in it.
• Your exit. Whether you can leave if the brand becomes the scandal.
• Takedown mechanics. The deadline to remove a post, whether archiving counts as removing, whether a removed post still counts as delivered and paid, and who pays for a re-shoot or re-post, including a TikTok label error.
• Ads running from the post. What happens to any ad code or paid usage tied to a post that comes down. The ad-code guide linked in the usage section covers how each code is revoked.

Which tax forms will a brand ask for?

A US brand asks for a form so it can report the payment or apply the right withholding. Which one depends on who you are.

Checked 2026-09-28

A W-8BEN generally stays in effect from the date you sign it until the last day of the third calendar year after that (IRS instructions). Signed on 15 October 2026, it runs to 31 December 2029.

In the contract, check whether payment waits for the form, and send it with the signed contract so it can't hold up the first invoice. If the brand plans to withhold anything, ask it to state the amount and the basis in writing. What brands and platforms then report about your income is in what platforms report about creators.

Governing law: which country's law runs the contract?

This clause decides which law interprets the contract and where a dispute is heard.

• The law and the forum. A court or arbitration seat in the brand's home country can make a small claim cost more to pursue than it is worth. Read both the law and the place.
• Fit with the payment rules you are counting on. The UK Act does not apply to a contract the parties put under UK law if the contract has no significant connection with that part of the UK and a foreign law would otherwise apply. It does apply to a contract the parties put under a foreign law if UK law would otherwise apply and the contract has no significant connection with any other country (s.12). In the EU the Directive reaches you through national law, so the governing law decides which member state's late-payment rules you can invoke.
• Language. Which language version prevails if there are two.
• Notices. The address and email where formal notices must be sent.

The checklist to print

• Every deliverable listed with platform, format, length and count
• Draft dates, posting window with time zone, how long posts stay live
• Revision rounds, the brand's response deadline, what happens after silence
• Who switches on the paid-partnership label, which brand account is tagged, any extra wording
• A licence, not a transfer, unless the transfer is priced; no work-made-for-hire wording you did not agree to
• Usage media, term and territory; raw files; ad-code duration and how to revoke it
• Exclusivity scope, dates and platforms, lined up with paid usage and paid for
• The payment due date and the event it counts from; invoice rules; currency and fees
• Late-payment interest and recovery costs not excluded
• A kill fee per stage; no use of unpaid drafts
• A defined morality trigger; no repayment of fees already earned; an exit for you
• A takedown deadline; removed posts still paid; re-post costs assigned
• The tax form sent with the contract; any withholding stated in writing
• A governing law, forum and language you can live with

Frequently asked questions

Does a brand deal need a written contract?

The statutes on this page require writing in three cases. A transfer of copyright needs a signed writing in the US and the UK (17 U.S.C. §204(a), CDPA s.90). Commissioned work counts as work made for hire in the US only under a written instrument both sides sign (17 U.S.C. §101). In New York State, a hiring party that retains a covered freelancer for $800 or more must put the contract in writing and keep it for six years (§1412).

Can a brand pay me 90 days after the invoice?

Under the EU Directive, a payment period over 60 calendar days has to be expressly agreed and not grossly unfair to you. Under the UK Act, statutory interest runs after day 60, counted from the later of doing the work and the brand having notice of the amount, unless the later agreed day is not grossly unfair. New York's §1411 sets no maximum; it requires payment by the contract date, or within 30 days of completing the work if the contract names none.

Who turns on the paid-partnership label, me or the brand?

You do. On Instagram you add the paid partnership label and tag the brand; the first time you tag a brand, it has to approve the request. On TikTok you turn on the content disclosure setting and choose branded content. The FTC adds that a platform's tool alone may not be enough disclosure.