The Positive R.
Avoid! Withholds Approved Payments and Uses Excuses
We have had an extremely negative experience with CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction). After over four months of generating leads and approved commissions (over £8,000 showing as due in our dashboard), CJ repeatedly delayed payments with one excuse after another. At first, they told us our bank details needed updating, then claimed our tax information wasn’t aligned, despite us providing all the correct documents, including a bank letter. Each time we complied, they raised a new hurdle. Once we pressed firmly for payment, they suddenly shifted tone and started raising compliance questions out of the blue. Most recently, they terminated our account, citing vague “VPN/Proxy” leads—something completely outside of our control as publishers, and never mentioned before in months of prior correspondence where our account had been confirmed as compliant. This appears to be a pattern of stalling tactics designed to avoid paying publishers what they are owed. Rather than honoring their own Publisher Service Agreement, CJ strung us along with delay after delay, only to shut down our account when payment was due. VPN use by end-users is normal in today’s internet environment and should never be used as a blanket excuse to withhold commissions already approved. We believe this is unethical, potentially unlawful, and damaging to trust in the affiliate marketing industry. If you are a publisher considering CJ Affiliate, proceed with caution. In our experience, they will happily take your traffic and leads but create endless obstacles when it comes to actually paying. We are now seeking legal advice and escalating this further, but wanted to warn others: CJ Affiliate cannot be trusted to deal fairly with its publishers.