The Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association is launching a dedicated Compliance & Standards Taskforce to position the UK affiliate industry as the global benchmark for compliance and governance.
Building on the work of the APMA in 2025 and the UK’s strong record of self-regulation, the new group will work on projects designed to enhance confidence in the channel.
Led by affiliate consultant Red Barrington, the taskforce also comprises representatives from compliance companies including Rightlander, Marcode and AdPolice. Tradedoubler, Optimise and Affiverse complete the line-up.
Red commented on the taskforce, “The affiliate industry remains one of the safest digital channels for brands to invest in. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas we need to improve. As new models emerge and the commercial opportunities in the UK grow, so we need to ensure we’re tackling non-compliance and poor practice.
“Over the course of 2026 I’m determined to be a part of the positive change the APMA can drive to continue to build brand confidence in affiliate marketing, which in turn helps secure bigger budgets and greater success for everyone.”
Ian Sims, from Rightlander, added, “As scrutiny grows on consumer protection through marketing narrative, it is becoming ever more important for networks, brands and agencies to demonstrate that they are not only aware of but also able to control how the brands they represent is being positioned responsibly.
“This requires closer working relationships with publishers to mutually understand how social media, sub-networks and traditional consumer-facing websites are expected to play their role in responsibly targeted marketing campaigns.”
November roundtables
In November 2025 APMA members gathered to agree the principle focus of the APMA roadmap for the coming year. Compliance and best practice were identified as major topics to be addressed. The following areas and potential projects were selected:
Priority areas
- A clear compliance framework with reporting and escalation routes
- Interpretation and application of existing codes of conduct
- Greater transparency, including subnetwork disclosure
- Independent audit and benchmarking
- Ongoing engagement with regulators
Potential planned actions
- Create a unified compliance framework setting out acceptable behaviours, reporting obligations and enforcement pathways
- Introduce a subnetwork transparency code requiring disclosure of ownership, structure and traffic sources
- Establish accreditation or whitelisting for verified compliant partners
- Strengthen network onboarding expectations to improve baseline quality
- Define clear PPC and brand bidding rules, with guidance on enforcement
- Support international regulatory alignment through industry and policy engagement
2025 Output
In 2025 the APMA published a series of documents, guides and best practice information for the wider affiliate community, including:
- Attribution audit: A comprehensive audit of ten affiliate networks exploring the technologies they use when working with certain affiliate types such as browser extensions and rebate catchers.
- Payments code of conduct: https://theapma.co.uk/apma-advertiser-payments-code-of-conduct/The world’s first code focused on speeding up affiliate payments and unlocking future channel growth
- Subnetworks matrix: Detailed matrix of 25 subnetworks, creating a blueprint for how brands work with this important affiliate category
