These Affiliate Program Terms (“Terms”) govern participation in the Obsidian Research Affiliate Program (“Affiliate Program,” “Program,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).
By submitting an application to participate in the Affiliate Program, and by participating after approval, you (“Affiliate,” “you,” or “your”) agree to these Terms.
Participation in the Affiliate Program is subject to approval by Obsidian Research. Submission of an application does not guarantee acceptance.
1. Affiliate Program Eligibility and Approval
All affiliate applications are reviewed manually.
Obsidian Research reserves the right to approve or reject any application at its sole discretion, with or without explanation.
Applicants must provide accurate and complete information during registration.
Affiliates must be at least 21 years old and legally able to enter into this agreement.
Approval is specific to the individual or business that submitted the application. Affiliate accounts may not be transferred, sold, or assigned without written permission from Obsidian Research.
We may periodically review affiliate accounts, promotional methods, websites, social media accounts, or other channels used to promote Obsidian Research.
2. Affiliate Links and Discount Codes
Approved affiliates may receive one or more unique affiliate links, referral URLs, vanity URLs, coupon codes, or other tracking identifiers.
These tracking methods are intended to identify qualifying referrals attributable to the Affiliate.
Affiliates may share their assigned affiliate links and approved promotional codes through authorized promotional channels.
Affiliates may not:
- Alter tracking links in a way that interferes with attribution.
- Use another Affiliate’s code or referral link.
- Create unauthorized coupon codes.
- Publish fake, expired, or misleading discounts.
- Represent themselves as Obsidian Research employees, owners, representatives, or authorized agents.
- Register domain names, usernames, social media handles, paid-search terms, or advertisements designed to impersonate Obsidian Research.
All Obsidian Research trademarks, logos, graphics, product imagery, and other brand assets remain the property of Obsidian Research.
3. Commission Eligibility
Affiliates may earn commissions on eligible purchases attributed to their approved affiliate link or coupon code.
The standard affiliate commission is 10% of the eligible order subtotal unless a different rate has been specifically assigned to the Affiliate.
Unless otherwise stated, commissions are calculated after discounts and exclude:
- Shipping charges
- Sales tax
- Refunds
- Returns
- Charge backs
- Canceled orders
- Fraudulent transactions
- Orders determined to be ineligible under these Terms
Obsidian Research’s tracking and transaction records will be used to determine affiliate attribution and commission eligibility.
A referral is not guaranteed to be credited if tracking information is unavailable, blocked, deleted, overwritten, or otherwise cannot reasonably be attributed to the Affiliate.
4. Self-Referrals
Unless expressly approved in writing by Obsidian Research, Affiliates may not earn commissions on purchases made by:
- The Affiliate personally
- Accounts controlled by the Affiliate
- Purchases primarily intended to generate affiliate commissions
- Artificial or coordinated transactions designed to manipulate the Program
Obsidian Research may void commissions associated with prohibited self-referrals or affiliate-program manipulation.
5. Commission Approval and Payouts
Affiliate commissions are initially considered pending and are subject to review.
Pending commissions may be held until the applicable order has passed the applicable return, refund, charge back, and fraud-review period.
Approved commissions are generally paid weekly.
The minimum payout threshold is $20.
Affiliates are responsible for providing accurate payment information.
Obsidian Research is not responsible for delays caused by inaccurate payment details, third-party payment processors, banking institutions, or circumstances outside our reasonable control.
Affiliates are responsible for any taxes associated with payments received through the Affiliate Program and for providing any tax documentation that may be legally required.
6. Returns, Refunds, Cancellations, and Charge backs
Commissions are only earned on completed and eligible transactions.
If an order is:
- Refunded
- Partially refunded
- Returned
- Canceled
- Charged back
- Determined to be fraudulent
the associated commission may be canceled, reduced, reversed, or deducted from future affiliate earnings.
If a commission has already been paid on an order that is later refunded, charged back, or determined to be fraudulent, Obsidian Research may offset the amount against future commissions.
7. Research-Use-Only Requirements
Obsidian Research products are offered for legitimate research purposes and are not intended for human or animal consumption unless expressly stated otherwise on the applicable product page.
Affiliates must accurately represent Obsidian Research products and must not promote them for unauthorized purposes.
Affiliates may not make, imply, repeat, endorse, or encourage claims suggesting that an Obsidian Research product:
- Diagnoses any disease or medical condition
- Treats any disease or medical condition
- Prevents any disease or medical condition
- Cures any disease or medical condition
- Produces guaranteed health, cosmetic, performance, weight-loss, anti-aging, therapeutic, or physiological results
- Is approved for human or veterinary use when it is not
- Is safe or appropriate for personal administration
- Should be injected, ingested, inhaled, applied, dosed, reconstituted, or otherwise administered to a person or animal
Affiliates may not provide dosing instructions, administration instructions, reconstitution instructions for personal use, treatment protocols, cycle recommendations, or individualized medical advice in connection with Obsidian Research products.
Affiliates must not attempt to circumvent research-use-only positioning through coded language, euphemisms, private messages, testimonials, before-and-after claims, or other indirect representations.
8. Prohibited Health and Performance Claims
Affiliates are responsible for ensuring that all statements they make regarding Obsidian Research products are accurate, supportable, and compliant with applicable law.
Statements about published research must be clearly distinguished from claims about the products sold by Obsidian Research.
Affiliates may discuss legitimate scientific research in an educational context, but may not present preliminary, animal, laboratory, mechanistic, or investigational research as proof of outcomes in humans.
Affiliates may not state or imply that:
- Research findings guarantee a particular result.
- Supplier documentation proves clinical effectiveness.
- Laboratory documentation establishes safety or efficacy for human use.
- Obsidian Research has performed testing that was actually conducted by a supplier or third party.
- A product is FDA approved when it is not.
When referring to documentation provided by Obsidian Research, Affiliates must accurately describe supplier-issued materials as supplier-issued documentation where applicable.
9. Affiliate Disclosure Requirements
Affiliates must clearly disclose their financial relationship with Obsidian Research whenever they promote Obsidian Research or use an affiliate link or code.
Disclosures must be clear, conspicuous, and placed where consumers are likely to see them before or alongside the promotional content.
Acceptable disclosures may include language such as:
“Affiliate link — I may earn a commission if you purchase through this link.”
or
“I am an Obsidian Research affiliate and may receive a commission from qualifying purchases.”
A disclosure may not be hidden solely in:
- A profile biography
- Terms & Conditions
- A long list of hashtags
- A separate web-page
- Collapsed text
- The end of content where viewers are unlikely to see it
Affiliates are responsible for complying with applicable endorsement, advertising, and consumer-protection laws and platform policies.
10. Testimonials and Personal Experiences
Affiliates may not use fabricated testimonials, reviews, customer experiences, or endorsements.
Affiliates may not present personal-use testimonials involving research-use-only products in a manner that promotes or encourages human or animal consumption.
Affiliates may not solicit or republish testimonials containing prohibited medical, therapeutic, dosing, or personal-use claims.
Obsidian Research may require an Affiliate to remove or modify promotional content that we believe violates these Terms or creates regulatory, legal, reputational, or platform risk.
11. Promotional Methods
Affiliates may generally promote Obsidian Research through websites, blogs, social media, newsletters, educational content, and other lawful channels, subject to these Terms.
The following promotional practices are prohibited unless Obsidian Research provides written approval:
- Spam or unsolicited bulk messaging
- Misleading advertising
- False scarcity or false urgency
- Fake reviews or testimonials
- Trademark bidding in paid search
- Impersonating Obsidian Research
- Creating unauthorized Obsidian Research-branded websites
- Cookie stuffing
- Forced redirects
- Automated clicks
- Artificial traffic
- Incentivized clicks intended solely to generate commissions
- Misleading coupon websites
- Browser extensions that improperly overwrite affiliate attribution
- Posting affiliate links in places where promotional or affiliate content is prohibited
Affiliates must comply with the terms of any social media, advertising, marketplace, email, or other platform they use.
12. Brand Representation
Affiliates must represent Obsidian Research professionally and accurately.
Affiliate participation does not create an employment, partnership, franchise, agency, joint venture, or representative relationship.
Affiliates may describe themselves as an:
“Obsidian Research Affiliate”
but may not describe themselves as an employee, representative, distributor, authorized medical provider, scientific representative, or official spokesperson unless separately authorized in writing.
Obsidian Research may provide approved logos, graphics, descriptions, promotional materials, or brand guidelines.
Affiliates may not materially alter Obsidian Research branding in a way that creates confusion about the source or nature of the content.
13. Fraud and Program Abuse
Obsidian Research maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward affiliate fraud.
Prohibited conduct includes, but is not limited to:
- Fake orders
- Coordinated fraudulent transactions
- Stolen payment methods
- Repeated self-referrals
- Creating multiple affiliate accounts to circumvent restrictions
- Manipulating tracking systems
- Cookie stuffing
- Automated traffic
- Artificial clicks
- Unauthorized coupon distribution
- Misrepresenting transaction sources
- Attempting to obtain commissions for transactions not legitimately referred by the Affiliate
Suspected commissions may be held while an investigation is conducted.
If fraud or abuse is confirmed or reasonably suspected, Obsidian Research may void commissions, suspend payments, terminate the Affiliate, or take any other action reasonably necessary to protect the business and its customers.
14. Content Removal Requests
Obsidian Research may request that an Affiliate modify or remove content that:
- Violates these Terms
- Contains inaccurate product information
- Makes prohibited claims
- Creates regulatory or legal concerns
- Misuses Obsidian Research intellectual property
- Damages or is reasonably likely to damage the Obsidian Research brand
Affiliates agree to comply with reasonable removal or modification requests promptly.
Failure to comply may result in suspension or termination.
15. Suspension and Termination
Either party may end the affiliate relationship at any time.
Obsidian Research may immediately suspend or terminate an Affiliate for reasons including:
- Violation of these Terms
- Prohibited health or medical claims
- Promotion of human or animal consumption
- Fraud or suspected fraud
- Misleading advertising
- Failure to disclose the affiliate relationship
- Brand impersonation
- Trademark misuse
- Spam
- Repeated customer complaints
- Conduct creating legal, regulatory, reputational, payment-processing, or platform risk
- Abuse of affiliate tracking, coupons, or commissions
Following termination, the Affiliate must stop representing themselves as an Obsidian Research Affiliate and discontinue unauthorized use of Obsidian Research promotional materials.
Legitimate commissions earned before termination may remain payable after applicable review periods, unless those commissions are associated with a violation of these Terms, fraud, prohibited conduct, refunds, charge backs, or otherwise ineligible transactions.
16. Modification of the Affiliate Program
Obsidian Research may modify the Affiliate Program or these Terms from time to time.
Changes may include adjustments to:
- Commission percentages
- Eligible products
- Promotional rules
- Cookie or attribution periods
- Payment schedules
- Minimum payout requirements
- Approved marketing methods
- Program availability
Updated Terms will be posted on this page with a revised “Last Updated” date.
Continued participation in the Affiliate Program after updated Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
17. Availability of the Program
Obsidian Research does not guarantee that the Affiliate Program will remain available indefinitely.
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Affiliate Program at any time.
Nothing in these Terms guarantees any Affiliate a particular amount of traffic, sales, commissions, revenue, or earnings.
18. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Obsidian Research will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or lost-profit damages arising from participation in the Affiliate Program.
Obsidian Research does not guarantee uninterrupted operation of affiliate tracking systems, websites, third-party software, payment systems, or referral technology.
19. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by applicable law, Affiliates agree to be responsible for claims, losses, liabilities, expenses, or damages resulting from their own unlawful promotional activities, unauthorized representations, prohibited claims, infringement, fraud, or violation of these Terms.
20. Independent Contractor Relationship
Affiliates participate in the Program as independent contractors.
Nothing in these Terms creates an employment relationship, partnership, joint venture, agency relationship, franchise, or fiduciary relationship between the Affiliate and Obsidian Research.
Affiliates have no authority to enter into agreements or make commitments on behalf of Obsidian Research.
21. No Guaranteed Earnings
Participation in the Affiliate Program does not guarantee income.
Affiliate earnings depend on qualifying referrals, eligible transactions, customer activity, compliance with these Terms, and other factors.
Obsidian Research makes no representation or guarantee regarding the amount of commissions an Affiliate may earn.
22. Sever-ability
If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in effect to the extent permitted by law.
23. Contact
Questions regarding the Obsidian Research Affiliate Program or these Terms may be submitted through our website:
Obsidian Research LLC
obsidian-research.org
