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Compliance & brand safety
Ensuring every offer and native placement meets platform policies, industry regulations and brand-safety standards — for advertisers and publishers alike.
Position
Compliance is what keeps the network alive.
In offer distribution, the failure modes are well understood: an unsubstantiated claim, an undisclosed placement, a traffic source nobody authorised. Each one puts platform access, publisher relationships and advertiser reputation at risk simultaneously.
So we treat compliance as a gate rather than a review. Offers do not reach publishers until they have passed it, creative does not run until it has been checked in the environment it will appear in, and a placement that drifts comes down while we discuss it rather than after.
This page describes our operating standards, not legal advice. Advertisers and publishers remain responsible for their own regulatory obligations. Where a campaign touches a regulated category, we expect both sides to take independent legal and compliance advice.
The gate
What every offer passes before distribution.
- Claim substantiation Performance, savings and outcome claims must be supportable by the advertiser in writing.
- Disclosure design Sponsorship labelling specified per format and per environment, prominent and unambiguous.
- Data handling What is collected, on what legal basis, where it goes, and what the audience is told at point of capture.
- Traffic source rules Permitted and prohibited promotion methods enumerated, not implied.
- Landing experience Message match, terms availability, and no dark patterns in form or consent design.
- Category review Sector-specific requirements applied where the offer touches regulated territory.
Standards we work to
The frameworks that shape our rules.
We build our internal standards around the requirements our partners are already subject to.
Advertising regulation
US Federal Trade Commission guidance on truthful advertising, substantiation, and the disclosure of material connections in endorsements and native formats.
Platform policy
The advertising policies of the major demand and distribution platforms, which routinely set a stricter bar than the law and change without much notice.
Privacy law
Applicable US state privacy legislation and, where an audience or partner falls within scope, international regimes such as the UK and EU GDPR.
Anti-spam rules
CAN-SPAM and equivalent requirements where offers are promoted through email inventory, including sender identification and unsubscribe handling.
Sector rules
Additional requirements in FinTech and HealthTech — financial promotion standards, health claim limits, and heightened data-handling expectations.
Brand standards
The advertiser’s own guidelines on adjacency, tone and claim language, which we treat as binding on placement decisions.
In practice
How oversight works across a campaign lifecycle.
Partner vetting
Publishers are reviewed on traffic source transparency, audience verification, content standards and disclosure practice before offer access is granted. Advertisers are reviewed on the substantiability of their claims and the integrity of their landing experience. Both sides can fail this stage.
Pre-flight offer review
The written offer sheet — terms, claims, restrictions, disclosure language, tracking and data handling — is reviewed against the frameworks above. Anything that cannot be supported is removed before the offer is visible to a single publisher.
Creative and placement approval
Native units, advertorial content and landing pages are checked for accuracy, disclosure prominence and message match. Advertisers approve everything carrying their brand; publishers confirm the format works in their environment without obscuring the label.
In-flight monitoring
Live placements are spot-checked in their real environment. We watch for creative drift, unapproved traffic sources, unusual conversion patterns and any complaint signal, and we reconcile promotion methods against what the offer permits.
Escalation and takedown
A named escalation contact on both sides and a defined path for urgent removal. Where a placement breaches the offer terms, it comes down first and is discussed second. Associated actions may be disqualified where the breach affected them.
Record keeping
Approved creative versions, offer sheet revisions, substantiation provided, review decisions and escalation outcomes are retained so that any placement can be reconstructed after the fact — which is what makes an audit answerable.
Prohibited
What we will not distribute or accept.
Publishing this list is the cheapest way to avoid wasting each other’s time.
- Unsubstantiated performance claims Including income, savings or outcome figures the advertiser cannot evidence.
- Undisclosed advertising Any paid placement that a reasonable reader would not recognise as sponsored.
- Incentivised or misrepresented traffic Including co-registration paths the user did not knowingly enter.
- Scraped or purchased contact data Presented as opted-in engagement.
- Trademark misuse Bidding on or impersonating advertiser brands without written permission.
- Deceptive design Countdown pressure, false scarcity, pre-ticked consent, or hidden terms.
- Business-opportunity and earnings offers Franchise, MLM, and get-rich-quick propositions.
- Regulated products outside our remit Including gambling, adult, crypto trading, supplements and prescription pharmaceuticals.
Report a concern
If you have seen something that shouldn’t be running.
Advertisers, publishers and members of the public can raise a compliance concern about any placement associated with Clear Path Advertising. Email contact@clearpath-advertising.com with the subject line Compliance concern and include, where you can:
- The URL or publication where you saw the placement
- A screenshot or description of the creative
- The date and approximate time you saw it
- What specifically concerned you
We acknowledge compliance reports within two business days. Where a placement appears to breach offer terms, we suspend it while we investigate rather than waiting for the investigation to conclude.
Let’s build the pipeline
Tell us what you’re trying to scale.
Whether you run inventory looking for better offers or a B2B brand looking for qualified engagement, the first conversation is a straight one: what you sell, who you need to reach, and whether we’re the right fit.