Safe Collaboration with an Influencer: Secure Payment, Advance, Deposit and Disputes

A safe collaboration with an influencer starts with a question nobody likes to ask out loud: who pays first, and what happens if the other side disappears? A brand does not want to send money to someone it is working with for the first time. A creator does not want to film on trust. Below: four ways to pay, the answer to “advance or deposit” (zaliczka or zadatek under Polish law), what escrow really is in Poland, the rules for approving content and a dispute step by step.

Whoever pays first carries the risk

Every way of settling a collaboration answers one question: which side takes the risk that the other will not keep its word. You cannot remove the risk, but you can split it so nobody depends solely on the other side’s goodwill. Offers that were never about a collaboration, only about the creator’s data or money, are a separate problem — how to spot them is covered in our article on fake collaboration offers.

Four ways to pay and who risks what

• Payment after publication. All the risk sits with the creator: the content is live on the profile, and the money may never arrive.
• 100% prepayment. All the risk moves to the brand: it pays for something it has not seen yet.
• Part upfront: an advance or a deposit. The risk is shared, but who loses what if the deal falls through depends on the word you use for that amount.
• Secure payment. The money is reserved before the creator starts and reaches them only after the content is approved. The glossary explains how this model works: what secure payment is.

Advance or deposit: one word in the contract changes the consequences

In conversation the two words are used interchangeably, but the Polish Civil Code (consolidated text, Dz.U. 2026 item 795) treats them very differently, and the difference only shows once a collaboration falls apart.

• An advance (zaliczka) has no separate provision in the Code. It is part of the fee paid upfront, returned if the contract is not performed (Art. 494 § 1 and Art. 410 § 2).
• A deposit (zadatek) is governed by Art. 394. If the party that paid the deposit fails to perform, the other party may withdraw from the contract and keep the deposit. If the party that received it fails to perform, it must pay back twice the amount. When the contract is performed, the deposit counts towards the fee, and when the contract is terminated or nobody, or both sides, are responsible for non-performance, the deposit is returned.

An example: a brand pays a creator a 300 zł deposit and disappears before publication. The creator keeps the 300 zł. If the creator is the one who disappears, they return 600 zł to the brand. The takeaway: write “zaliczka” or “zadatek within the meaning of Art. 394 of the Civil Code” explicitly in the contract. A bare “przedpłata” (prepayment) is a dispute waiting to happen.

Escrow in Poland: what it really is

Escrow is an arrangement in which money waits with a third party until a transaction is completed. Polish law has no such concept. The closest thing is a trust account under Art. 59 of the Banking Law (consolidated text, Dz.U. 2026 item 38), but banks offer it mainly for real estate deals and company acquisitions. For an 800 zł post it is impractical.

The “money waits until approval” model therefore relies on payment services. Only a payment service provider with a KNF (Polish Financial Supervision Authority) licence or a European passport may accept and transfer other people’s money as part of such a service. Operating without a licence is punishable by a fine of up to 5 million zł (Art. 150 of the Payment Services Act, consolidated text, Dz.U. 2026 item 623).

Before you trust a platform with money or data, check who runs it. How to do that in a few minutes is covered in our article how to check an influencer marketing platform.

Content approval: when a brand may reject it

If the collaboration is a contract for a specific work (umowa o dzieło), that is, an order for a specific piece of content, the brand must accept a work made in line with the contract (Art. 643 of the Civil Code), and the fee is due on delivery (Art. 642). When the content has defects or departs from what was agreed, the brand asks the creator to fix it and sets a reasonable deadline (Art. 636).

That is why approval criteria are written down before the start: what must be in the frame, which lines must be said, the format and length, how many revision rounds the price includes. “I don’t like it” is an opinion, not a criterion. See the glossary entry on content approval, and ready-made clauses in our influencer contract template.

When both sides are businesses, the Polish Act on Counteracting Excessive Delays in Commercial Transactions (consolidated text, Dz.U. 2023 item 1790) limits the review of the result to 30 days (Art. 9) and the payment term to 60 days (Art. 7).

When a brand ends the project midway

Until the work is finished, the brand may withdraw from the contract, but it must pay the agreed fee minus what the creator saved by not completing the work (Art. 644 of the Civil Code). If the creator was ready and the brand got in the way, for example by not sending the product or the brief, the fee is still due (Art. 639). When the work cannot be done without the brand’s cooperation, the creator may set it a deadline and withdraw from the contract once it passes (Art. 640).

A dispute step by step: from a message to e-Sąd

1. Evidence and reminders. Collect the correspondence, the publication link and screenshots of the terms, then remind the brand several times, more specifically each time. The message sequence is in our article what to do when a brand goes silent after publication.
2. A payment demand (wezwanie do zapłaty). In writing, with the amount, a deadline and a bank account number. It is not mandatory, but a statement of claim must say whether the parties tried to settle out of court (Art. 187 of the Code of Civil Procedure, consolidated text, Dz.U. 2026 item 468), and a demand that was sent is the simplest proof.
3. Interest and compensation. Between businesses, commercial interest is due, 13.75% a year in the second half of 2026 (M.P. 2026 item 642), plus 40 euro compensation for a debt of up to 5,000 zł (Art. 10 of the Act on Counteracting Excessive Delays). A creator without a registered business is entitled to statutory interest for delay, 9.25% a year since 5 March 2026 (M.P. 2026 item 367).
4. Mediation. The cost of private mediation is agreed with the mediator in a contract. In court-referred mediation, since 17 February 2026 the mediator receives 2% of the value in dispute, at least 300 zł (Dz.U. 2026 item 170).
5. Court. Payment claims up to 20,000 zł go through simplified proceedings (Art. 505¹ of the Code of Civil Procedure). The cheapest route is e-Sąd, the electronic writ-of-payment procedure: the fee is a quarter of the usual one, at least 30 zł, but you need the debtor’s PESEL or NIP number. For a claim above 1,500 and up to 4,000 zł the usual fee is 200 zł, so in e-Sąd you pay 50 zł (Act on Court Costs in Civil Cases, consolidated text, Dz.U. 2025 item 1228).
6. Deadlines. Claims under a contract for a specific work expire two years after the work was delivered (Art. 646 of the Civil Code), so do not wait with the first letter.

Whether a creator without a business acts as a consumer in a given case depends on the circumstances. This article is for information only and is not legal advice (law as of 14 October 2026).

Barter: where protection is weakest

In barter the fee is a product, so there is no money to reserve before the start. The only protection is what you write down: which product and of what value, which format, which deadline and what happens if the content never appears. How to propose and settle such a deal is covered in our article on barter collaboration, and the glossary explains the term barter.

How it works on Blogger Bank

• The brand chooses a creator for the job and pays the full budget before the work starts. This is how secure payment works.
• The creator sees that the funds are reserved, and only then starts working.
• The creator submits the result, the brand approves or rejects it, and a rejection always requires a comment. The result can be submitted at most three times: the first version and two rounds of revisions.
• The money goes to the creator when the brand clicks “Accept result”. If the brand delays, the platform reminds it to approve after one, three and five days.
• Until payment, either side can cancel the collaboration; after payment, it can no longer be cancelled.
• If you cannot reach an agreement, report the case to platform support as a “Dispute”.
• The commission is 5% on the brand’s side, plus the payment operator’s fee shown before paying, and separately 5% on the creator’s side, deducted at payout. Barter carries no commission. Work out the figure for your budget in the commission calculator.

If you are a brand, publish your first job and choose a creator. If you are a creator, apply to jobs where the money is reserved before you start working. Begin by creating an account.