Taking commission from websites in return for promoting the products they sell

Question: 150025

What is the ruling on the commission that I get from websites for the promotion I do to sell their products? Basically the idea is that I convince the customer to buy a specific product, whether it is books or medicine or computer products, etc, and I recommend him to buy from a particular website, and this website gives me a commission if the customers buy from them. What is the ruling on taking this commission? Is this commission permissible?.

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

It is permissible to take commission in return for attracting
customers and encouraging them to buy particular products, so long as the
product is permissible, the commission does not add so much to the price of
the product that it is damaging to the purchaser, and you try to be honest
in telling the customer about the product. Taking commission on this basis
comes under the same heading as brokerage.

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (13/131): It
is permissible for the broker to take a known percentage of the price that
is agreed to in return for showing it to him, and he may take it from the
seller or the buyer, according to whatever has been agreed, on a fair basis.
End
quote.

It also says (13/130):

I took a customer to a factory or store to buy something, and
the owner of the factory or store gave me commission for bringing the
customer. Is this money (the commission) halaal? If the owner of the factory
adds a particular amount of money for each item the customer takes, and I
take this money in return for the customer buying this product, is this
permissible? If it is not permissible, what is the kind of commission that
is permissible?

Answer: If the manufacturer or trader gives you some money
for every item that is sold through you, to encourage you to continue to
look for customers, and this money does not increase the price of the
product and that does not cause any harm to others who sell this product,
meaning that this manufacturer or trader sells it for a price like that for
which it is sold by others – that this is permissible and there are no
reservations concerning it.

But if this money that you take from the owner of the factory
or store increases the price of the product paid by the purchaser, then this
is not permissible for you to take it and it is not permissible for the
seller to do that, because this is harming the purchaser by increasing the
price for him. End quote.

What we have mentioned as being permissible is just telling
people about a particular product, without that being accompanied by what is
called pyramid or network marketing, because that is a haraam kind of
marketing, as is explained in the answer to question no.
42579.

And Allah knows best.

Source:

Islam Q&A

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