Referral program terms that match how your offer actually works

Referral campaigns often run into trouble when the reward logic is not spelled out clearly enough. Common flashpoints include whether self-referrals count, when a reward is actually earned, what happens if an order is cancelled, whether multiple rewards can stack and how suspected misuse is handled. If those points are vague, customers may challenge the outcome or claim they were promised more than you intended. Clear referral terms help set the rules around participation, reward timing, exclusions and your rights to suspend or end the offer.

It will usually cover who can take part, what steps create a valid referral, what reward is offered, when that reward becomes available, any caps or exclusions, how fraud or abuse is treated, how long the program runs and whether you can amend or withdraw it. If the referral offer is linked to an app, online account or subscription, the terms may also need to align with those systems. The wording should reflect the actual mechanics of your campaign, not just the headline promotion.

Helpful details include who the referrer and referred person are, what action triggers the reward, whether there is a waiting period, what happens with refunds or cancelled orders, whether rewards are cash, credits, discounts or perks, and any limits on geography, customer type or campaign period. We also look at how referrals are tracked, such as codes, links or account matching. Those mechanics matter because the legal wording needs to match the real offer and the way participants interact with it.

It can be. Referral offers often sound simple in marketing copy but have a lot of edge cases once people start using them. A generic template may not deal well with duplicate accounts, employee participation, cancelled purchases, delayed rewards, campaign changes or anti-abuse rules. It may also fail to line up with your checkout flow, app journey or membership settings. A tailored document is usually more useful when the referral offer is part of an ongoing acquisition strategy rather than a short one-off promotion.

After you provide the key details of the campaign, we assess the referral mechanics and prepare the terms or review an existing draft. If the campaign has unusual features, such as tiered rewards or multiple participant groups, we may need extra information before finalising the wording. The fixed-fee covers the referral terms service described on this page. It does not include tax advice, ongoing representation, technical build work or wider review of all marketing materials unless that is separately agreed.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Referral Program Terms service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.