Coupon code policy

CheerFinds works to the IAB UK Affiliate Marketing Council Code of Conduct – Vouchers (version 4.0, June 2017), which the affiliate networks enforce on their publishers as a condition of trading, and to Awin’s Code of Conduct for Publishers. Rather than assert that we comply, this page takes the rules one at a time and describes what the site does about each, so a reader, a retailer or a network reviewer can check the claim against the pages themselves.

It applies to every entry in the index, whatever its source — a retailer, a network, an agency or a reader.

1. Good faith

The Code asks publishers to honour its spirit as well as its wording, and to build content in good faith with the reader in mind.

The question we put to anything before it goes up is whether someone who acted on it would feel misled afterwards. It is why the conditions sit on the entry rather than the discount alone; why an entry says plainly when a shop gave no end date instead of inventing one; and why how we check codes describes an ordinary editorial process rather than a fictional one.

2. Information that is true, accurate and not misleading

Key conditions and expiry, immediately visible

The Code: a description of the key terms and conditions of a voucher, including any expiration date, must be immediately visible when the voucher is viewed, having regard to the nature and screen size of the device.

Under every entry is a row of plain-text chips carrying its end date and its principal conditions. Where the retailer supplied its own terms wording with the promotion, that wording is what we show. The row is ordinary text on the page — not a tooltip, not behind a tap, not truncated on a narrow screen; the layout is built to keep it legible down to 320 pixels. A “See Details” expander beneath holds the longer explanation, which answers the Code’s separate requirement that all remaining terms be readily accessible.

Expired vouchers

The Code: vouchers must be kept up to date, and an expired voucher may only remain published where it is immediately apparent to consumers that it has expired. Stating the expiry date alone is not sufficient.

On the day an entry’s end date passes it is removed automatically from every live list, count, department page and search result. It then survives only on its own shop’s page, inside a section headed “recently expired”, greyed and struck through, stating the date it stopped, with the code control replaced by a sentence saying it no longer works. Twenty-one days later it is unpublished. Expired entries are marked noindex so a search engine cannot present one as though it were live, and anything that had already expired was never imported to begin with.

Prominent, fair and intelligible

Conditions are written in ordinary English, at the same size as the rest of the entry, in dark type on a light ground. The full terms of any promotion belong to the retailer and are shown at its checkout, and every entry says as much.

Metatags and keywords

The Code: metatags or keywords associated with a voucher must not generate misleading search results.

Page titles and descriptions are generated from what is live at that moment, so when a shop’s best offer expires the title changes the same morning. We do not put a discount in a title that is not on the page, do not keep pages for shops we have no offers for, and do not create pages for promotions that never existed.

3. Consequences a reader would expect

The Code: a consumer must not be required, invited or induced to act without being properly informed of the consequences; a valid voucher must be the primary consequence of that action; and the consumer must be told if the action will cause a redirect or make a website appear.

• Beneath every code control, before you press it, is a line reading “Prints the code here and opens [shop] in a second tab.” Controls for offers with no code read “Takes you to [shop] in a second tab.”
• Pressing it produces the code: shown in full, copied to your clipboard, and left on screen behind the panel so it is still there when you come back.
• The shop opens in a second tab, so the entry and its conditions do not disappear behind it.
• There is no interstitial page, no countdown, no sign-up wall and nothing to install in order to read a code.

4. Vouchers told apart from other promotions

The Code: it must be clear whether a discount comes from using a voucher, from a group-buying or daily-deal arrangement, or from a sales promotion the advertiser is running generally.

Each entry is labelled either a code or an offer needing no code, is filterable by that label across the whole index, and says “code entered at checkout” or “no code needed” in its conditions row. We run no group-buying or daily-deal mechanics of any kind; were that to change, they would be labelled apart.

5. Monetising only with permission

The Code: vouchers must be monetised only with the advertiser’s permission; a publisher must not monetise vouchers licensed exclusively to another affiliate; and must stop monetising on request.

• Commercial links exist only for programmes that have accepted us. Where we have not been accepted, an entry is published without a commercial link or not published at all.
• We do not publish a code we have reason to think belongs to another publisher, a named creator, a staff member or one customer account.
• A retailer or its network can have an entry removed or demonetised on request, and we do not ask for a reason.

6. Content standards (Awin Code of Conduct, rule 6)

We carry no vaping, e-cigarette or tobacco products, no cannabis or CBD, no adult goods, no gambling, no weapons, no prescription pharmacy and no high-cost credit. Those categories are screened out when the store list is built and swept for again by keyword across every name, domain, title, description and terms field before anything is published. Nothing here is obscene, discriminatory, defamatory or violent, and we publish no reader-submitted content a person has not read first. Shop names are used only to identify the shop; the marks on our store pages are our own plain typographic settings of the shop’s name in the site’s own typeface, not reproductions of anybody’s brand assets.

7. Publishing as the retailer asked

We observe the instructions attached to each programme, including restrictions on paid search, bidding on trademarks, using codes in advertising copy and permitted channels. Where a programme gives no instruction, we publish only promotions the retailer has itself made public.

8. Traffic and technical conduct

Readers arrive through organic search and by typing the address. We operate no browser extension, toolbar, adware or cashback mechanic; use no iframes, hidden frames, forced redirects, robots or automated clicking; and never intercept another publisher’s referral or stuff cookies. A tracking link is only ever fired by a reader’s own deliberate click.

9. Nothing that brings affiliate marketing into disrepute

There are no open comments to moderate. Codes sent in by readers are read by a person and refused if they look personal, improperly obtained or likely to breach a shop’s own terms. Any complaint from a retailer or a network is answered promptly and in writing.

Retailers and networks

To have an entry corrected or taken down, to report a code that should never have been public, or to raise anything else under either Code, use the contact page and mark it for the owner. Requests of that kind go ahead of everything else — usually within a few hours of being read, and always the same working day.

A complaint can equally be raised with the affiliate network directly, which enforces the Code under its own terms of business.

Reviewing this page

The Code expects compliance measures to be reviewed periodically. We review this page and the checks behind it whenever either Code is revised, whenever a network raises anything with us, and in any case twice a year.