Brand Deal Contracts 101: 9 clauses every Indian creator must check before signing

You've negotiated the fee, agreed on deliverables, and the brand has sent over "a standard contract — just sign and return." Before you do, read this. Brand contracts are written by the brand's lawyers, for the brand's benefit. Nothing in them is neutral by accident.

Here are the nine clauses that decide whether that deal is a win — and what "good" looks like for each one.

1. Payment terms and timelines

The clause that matters most and gets read least. Look for:

When are you paid? "Within 30 days of invoice" is fair. "Within 90–120 days of campaign completion" means you're financing the brand for a quarter.
What triggers payment? Content delivery should trigger payment — not vague conditions like "campaign performance review".
Late payment consequences. Push for interest on delayed payments. Even a token clause changes how seriously finance teams treat your invoice.

Good to have: 50% advance for larger deals, especially with brands you haven't worked with before.

2. Scope of deliverables

"1 dedicated video + 2 stories" sounds clear until the brand asks for three rounds of re-edits, a script approval process, and a bonus post "as discussed on call." Your contract should state:

Exact number and type of deliverables
How many revision rounds are included
What counts as a change of scope (and that it costs extra)

If it's not written down, you'll end up doing it for free.

3. Usage and whitelisting rights

This is where creators lose the most money. When a brand asks for rights to use your content, ask three questions: where, how long, and for what?

Organic reposting on the brand's page for a limited time — reasonable.
Paid amplification / whitelisting (running your content or your face as ads, often from your own handle) — this is a separate, valuable license. It should be paid for separately and limited in duration.
Perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable rights in all media — this means the brand can use your face in ads forever, for free. Never accept this as a default.

4. Exclusivity

Exclusivity is the brand paying you to say no to other money. So it should be:

Category-limited: "no competing skincare brands", not "no other brands".
Time-limited: 30–90 days around the campaign is common. Twelve months is a big ask that deserves a big fee.
Platform-limited where possible.

Every extra month and category has a price. If the brand wants more exclusivity, the fee goes up. That's not rude; that's the deal.

5. Content ownership

Who owns the video you made? Many contracts quietly assign all intellectual property in the deliverables to the brand. That can mean you can't keep the video on your channel, reuse the footage, or include it in your showreel. A creator-friendly position: you own the content, and the brand receives a license for defined uses. If the brand insists on ownership, that's a premium they should pay for.

6. Morality and termination-for-convenience clauses

A morality clause lets the brand exit (and sometimes claw back money) if you do something that harms their image. They're standard — but watch the wording:

"Convicted of a criminal offence" is objective. "Conduct that in the brand's sole opinion attracts negative publicity" is a blank cheque.
Clawbacks should apply only to undelivered work, not fees for content you've already published.

Termination-for-convenience (the brand can cancel anytime) should always come with a kill fee for work in progress.

7. Indemnity

Indemnity means "if the brand gets sued because of something, you pay." Fair scope: claims arising from your content being plagiarised or your statements about the product going off-script. Unfair scope: indemnifying the brand for anything connected with the campaign — including claims about the product itself. You should never be underwriting the safety of a product you didn't make.

8. Disclosure compliance

Under the ASCI Influencer Advertising Guidelines (and the consumer-protection framework behind them), paid promotions must carry clear disclosure labels — #ad, #sponsored, or platform-native paid-partnership tags. Check that the contract doesn't require you to hide the commercial relationship or use disclosure so subtle it fails the guidelines. If ASCI or a regulator objects, a well-drafted contract shouldn't leave you holding the liability alone for a disclosure format the brand demanded.

9. Jurisdiction and dispute resolution

If things go wrong, where do you fight? A contract that puts exclusive jurisdiction in a city on the other side of the country raises your cost of enforcing anything. Look for a neutral or convenient jurisdiction, and consider arbitration clauses carefully — arbitration can be faster, but a badly drafted one can be more expensive than court for small claims.

The takeaway

You don't need to memorise contract law. You need to slow down at nine specific paragraphs and know what "normal" looks like. When a deal has real money, real exclusivity, or broad usage rights attached, get it reviewed — the review costs a fraction of what any one of these clauses can take from you.

This article is general information, not legal advice. For advice on a specific contract, talk to us.