Do I pay more if I buy through an influencer’s link?

1. You tap the link in a story, in the bio or under a video. It carries an ID that tells the shop or its affiliate programme who sent you.
2. You land on the shop’s product page. From here on, that shop’s prices, shipping costs and terms apply.
3. You order and pay at the shop. Your purchase contract is with the shop, not with the creator.
4. The shop pays the creator or the platform the link ran through, per click, per sale or both, depending on the programme.
5. If you send the item back, a commission on the sale is usually cancelled. The link makes no difference to your right of withdrawal.

Before you order online, the shop has to show you the total price including all taxes and charges, plus any freight, delivery or shipping costs. If it has personalised the price for you based on automated decision-making, it has to say so as well (Art. 246a § 1(1) nos. 5 to 7 and § 4(1) EGBGB, the Introductory Act to the German Civil Code). So the price in your basket is the one that counts, not the one in the post.

The link does not decide where you buy. If the same product costs less elsewhere or ships for free there, you can order there instead. The creator then only earns if that purchase also runs through one of their links or codes.

For affiliate links, the guidelines of Germany’s media authorities (Medienanstalten) call for an asterisk (*) and an explanation right next to the link. As an example of that explanation, they give a sample text for creators that includes the sentence “Für Dich entstehen dabei keine Mehrkosten” (there is no extra cost to you). That is suggested wording, not a check of prices by the media authorities.

Say a jacket costs €80 at the shop, with or without the link, and the shop pays 10% commission on the price before VAT. You pay €80. At 19% VAT, that includes €12.77 in tax, leaving €67.23. Of that, the shop passes €6.72 to the creator or to the platform the link ran through. If you send the jacket back, you get your €80 back and the €6.72 is usually cancelled.

Amazon’s German affiliate programme shows how real programme terms handle this. According to its commission schedule (Vergütungskatalog), Amazon pays the commission itself, as a percentage of what it actually takes in from the sale, minus shipping costs and taxes among other things. Orders for which a cancellation, return or refund has been started do not count.

On an online marketplace, the operator is not always the seller. It has to tell you if the seller has declared itself to be a business (Unternehmer), meaning it acts in the course of its trade or self-employed profession (Art. 246d § 1 no. 4 EGBGB, § 14 BGB, the German Civil Code). If the seller is not a business, the special rules for consumer contracts do not apply, including the statutory right of withdrawal (§ 310(3) and § 312(1) BGB). The marketplace has to point that out too (Art. 246d § 1 no. 5 EGBGB). If it handles part of the order for the seller, such as shipping, that gives you no contractual claims of your own against the marketplace, and it has to tell you that as well (no. 6).

The creator whose link you used is usually not a party to the purchase contract. That changes if you buy directly from the creator, for example merch. Creator liability for recommendations is a separate question.

If you order online as a consumer from a shop that is a business, you can withdraw without giving a reason, and sending your withdrawal in time is enough (Widerrufsrecht, § 312g(1) and § 355(1) BGB). For goods, the 14 days run from receipt (§ 355(2) and § 356(2) no. 1 BGB). If the shop has not informed you properly, the period does not start, and the right expires at the latest twelve months and 14 days after receipt (§ 356(3) and (4) BGB). If you ordered through a website or app, the shop has to offer a function there labelled “Vertrag widerrufen” (withdraw from contract) or something equally clear (§ 356a(1) BGB).

After you withdraw, the shop refunds the purchase price and delivery costs up to the cheapest standard delivery it offered, no later than 14 days after receiving your withdrawal. It may wait until the item is back or you show that you have sent it. You pay for return shipping if the shop told you so beforehand and does not cover it itself (§ 355(3) and § 357(1), (2), (4) and (5) BGB).

A shop can give you more than the law requires, such as a longer return period. § 312g(2) BGB lists exceptions to the right of withdrawal unless something else has been agreed. For purchases after a recommendation, these matter most:

• goods made to your specifications or clearly made for your personal needs, such as a shirt printed with your name (no. 1)
• goods that can spoil quickly, such as fresh food (no. 2)
• sealed goods that are not suitable for return for health protection or hygiene reasons, once the seal has been removed after delivery, such as some hygiene products (no. 3)

On wyrld, creators show products they use themselves. If wyrld finds the same item in several partner shops, the offers appear side by side with prices, and you decide where to buy. The buy button at the top of a product page leads to the first shop in the list. The cheapest new offer carries the “Best price” label, even if it is further down the list. wyrld explains how the list is sorted right next to the price list.

You usually buy directly from the shop, and wyrld adds nothing on top: the shop pays the commission to wyrld, not you, and wyrld pays the creator from it. Prices come from the shops and are updated regularly; the price the shop shows at checkout is the binding one. Payment, shipping and returns follow that shop’s terms, and you claim your statutory rights for defects from the seller. The exception is products wyrld sells itself, such as creators’ own products. For those, wyrld is the seller.

If you are a creator yourself and your community asks if they pay more through your link, you can tell them: they can buy from the cheapest shop in the comparison. That offer also runs through wyrld and counts for your storefront, with the click, the sale or both paid depending on the shop. wyrld creates the affiliate links for you, without you signing up to any network. It is free for creators.