Sovrn Commerce (formerly VigLink)
Tool · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Sovrn Commerce is an affiliate tool that turns a publisher's ordinary links into affiliate ones. The Commerce page opened with the title "Commerce - Sovrn, Inc.".
One check explains why the tool is often met under a different name: the domain viglink.com redirects to the same page. That is, this is the former VigLink, and materials written under the old name refer to it as well.
The deep dive is short, and the reason lies in the arrangement of the documents. The only open contract is the Sovrn master services agreement (MSA), common to all the company's services. The terms specifically for Commerce are set out in separate Terms & Conditions, which are not posted on the open pages. Everything relating to the commission lives precisely there — and therefore remains unknown until you connect.
Who is admitted
Requirements for the platform, the audience or the country were found neither on the Commerce page nor in the master agreement. Admission thresholds, restrictions by type of platform and a list of countries the tool does not publish on the open pages.
Approval criteria may exist and be applied — it is simply that learning them in advance from the open pages is not possible.
How much they pay
Neither a rate nor the tool's share is on the open pages. On the Commerce page no figures are given, and in the master agreement the size of the commission is directly set out in separate Terms & Conditions — a document not to be found on the open pages.
This is an important difference from networks where the rate is set by the advertiser: here it is not even known who sets it and what share the tool itself retains. No figure can be substituted in here.
The lifetime of the click tag is not announced either on the Commerce page or in the master agreement.
When and how they pay
The only exact figure in the whole deep dive is the threshold, and it is set in the master agreement: "If the amount accrued for the applicable month is less than $50 (USD) for payments by wire or $25 (USD) for all other payments, payment will be deferred until the month in which the cumulative balance owed to Customer exceeds the applicable thresholds".
That is, 50 dollars for a bank transfer and 25 dollars for all other methods. Money below the threshold is not forfeited: the payout is deferred to the month in which the accumulated balance exceeds the threshold.
A reservation is obligatory: the threshold is set in Sovrn's general contract, not in the Commerce terms. A separate threshold specifically for Commerce is not on the open pages.
Specific payout dates are not contained in the master agreement, and the contract refers to those same separate Terms & Conditions. All that is known is the rule of deferral until the threshold is exceeded, but not on what day of the month the money arrives.
The payout methods are listed incompletely. The agreement says: "Sovrn facilitates payment for Services using a payment dashboard hosted by a third-party vendor" — the payouts go through the dashboard of a third-party vendor whose name is not in the contract. Separately mentioned are "payments by wire", bank transfers — from which it follows that they are available, but that is no substitute for a full list of methods. Fees for a withdrawal the tool does not name.
What must be disclosed
Requirements for an affiliate to label advertising were not found in the master agreement.
At the same time the contract itself refers to a separate document — the "Commerce Publisher Code of Conduct". On the open pages it is not posted, and what exactly is written in it about disclosure is unknown. The existence of such a document means that the tool does have rules of conduct for a publisher; from that it follows neither that a disclosure requirement is there nor that it is not.
An obligation to disclose an advertising relationship may exist under the law of your country regardless of whether the tool writes about it.
What the network will not do
It will not show the size of the commission before you connect. It is set out in separate Terms & Conditions, which are not on the open pages.
It will not announce its own share — it is not even known how that share is arranged.
It does not publish the lifetime of the click tag.
It does not name payout dates. All that is known is the rule of deferral until the threshold is exceeded.
It does not give a full list of payout methods: all that is said concerns the dashboard of a third-party vendor and bank transfers.
A cheap bank transfer there will not be: the threshold for it is twice as high — 50 dollars against 25 for the other methods.
It does not publish requirements for the platform, the audience and the country.
It will not show the rules of conduct for a publisher before you connect: the Commerce Publisher Code of Conduct is mentioned in the contract but is absent from the open pages.
Not one of these silences proves that a condition does not exist — only that it is not on the open pages.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
How the money works here
approval is given not on a form but on live traffic: «In order to evaluate that your site(s) meet our network quality standards, we must receive click traffic (made by a real human)»; «Once your links have generated at least one click — ideally more than one — the automated review process is triggered»; «Provide complete, specific URLs rather than shortened (e.g., bit.ly) links or a general homepage address». Forbidden site content is listed in the Commerce publisher code of conduct: «Misleading»; «Un-approved (as determined by Sovrn)»; «Libelous, disparaging, or defamatory»; «Obscene, violent, bigoted, hate-oriented, or sexually explicit»; «Illegal, and/or that promotes illegal goods, services, or activities»; «Unoriginal or sourced from a third-party without consent»; «Content cannot contain disinformation or misinformation, inflammatory politics, or promote adversarial narratives»; «misleading, unsubstantiated, or dangerous health claims, advice, or remedies»
the network names no minimum number of visitors: the threshold is at least one genuine click on links already installed rather than a traffic figure. The list of prohibitions comes from https://www.sovrn.com/service-policies/commerce-publisher-code-of-conduct/
source, checked 2026-08-07
https://www.sovrn.com/commerce/
the page opened, title "Commerce - Sovrn, Inc."; the domain viglink.com redirects here as well, so this is the former VigLink
source, checked 2026-08-04
Payout minimum. «If the amount accrued for the applicable month is less than $50 (USD) for payments by wire or $25 (USD) for all other payments, payment will be deferred until the month in which the cumulative balance owed to Customer exceeds the applicable thresholds»
the threshold is set in Sovrn's general contract (the MSA); there is no separate Commerce threshold on the open pages
source, checked 2026-08-04
Where the terms are. https://www.sovrn.com/legal/msa-2022/
this is Sovrn's framework contract; the terms specific to Commerce are moved to separate Terms & Conditions
source, checked 2026-08-04
there is a review and it is automated: «Once your links have generated at least one click — ideally more than one — the automated review process is triggered»; «In order to evaluate that your site(s) meet our network quality standards, we must receive click traffic (made by a real human)». The network states the time on the product page as the figure «24 hrs Average approval time». It may exclude a publisher without cause: «Sovrn may terminate Publisher access to all or any part of Sovrn Commerce at any time, with or without cause»
«24 hrs Average approval time» is an average by the network's own statement from https://www.sovrn.com/commerce/, not a promised period for a particular application; what exactly that average refers to the page does not specify. No duty to explain a refusal is stipulated anywhere. The robots.txt of www.sovrn.com was read in full, six lines: the User-agent: * group begins with Allow: / and closes only /product-feature/
source, checked 2026-08-07
When they pay. the payout is deferred until the month in which the accumulated balance exceeds the threshold: "payment will be deferred until the month in which the cumulative balance owed to Customer exceeds the applicable thresholds"
there are no specific payout dates in the MSA, there is a reference to separate Terms & Conditions
source, checked 2026-08-04
How they pay. «Sovrn facilitates payment for Services using a payment dashboard hosted by a third-party vendor»; separately mentioned: «payments by wire»
the MSA has no full list of payout methods
source, checked 2026-08-04
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