Should FMTC Help the Police?

We want to hear from you about this potential service!

Written by Brook Schaaf

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A couple of weeks ago, someone at CJU suggested that FMTC provide his coupon site with forbidden content — i.e., a list of coupons and deals that merchants do not want posted on their publishing partners’ pages for various reasons, usually because the deals aren’t approved for the affiliate channel or are fake/bad/expired. Many merchants don’t realize this, but above-board affiliates will remove “user-generated” and other specific content upon request. If they do not, merchants may reverse or reduce commissions, or even kick people out of programs. 

The idea isn’t new. Over the last few years, I feel it’s come up about once every show I’ve been to, usually suggested by affiliates. A coupon code blacklist, especially one updated via API, could save many hours of work. Of course, it would have to only go to trusted partners; otherwise they could just turn around and post the content or pass it along to someone else. And for their part, the trusted partners would, reasonably, expect uniform enforcement of policies so they aren’t disadvantaged vis-à-vis their competitors.

For this to work, someone would need to be in the middle to receive and send out the data. The networks don’t seem to want the headache, if they even have the resources. It is, however, right up FMTC’s alley. 

The flow would be straightforward: merchants submit a list of deals to FMTC then use FMTC’s user interface to select which deals are approved for use by all their affiliates or for specific ones. FMTC then transmits the data to the appropriate affiliates, who update their sites accordingly. 

Our Metadata deconstruction allows deals to readily be identified and cross referenced, even if ad copy is changed, different codes offer the same discount, etc. 

Based on all these conversations, there would seem to be a market demand for such a service, but FMTC has never before gone into the realm of the verboten, even in the name of compliance. Is this something we should offer? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Email us at [email protected] and let me know your opinion!