Who can take part

Anyone with a partner account can take part. Opening one is free and does not require a restaurant account.

A partner may not refer themselves. A restaurant owned or operated by the partner, or by a company the partner controls, does not earn commission.

How a referral is attributed

A restaurant is attributed to a partner in one of two ways: it arrives through the partner's link, or it types the partner's code when creating its account.

A restaurant that forgot to type the code can add it in Settings, but only during its first 14 days. After that the window closes for good.

Attribution happens once and is final. A restaurant that already has a partner cannot be moved to another one, whatever the reason.

Levels

The commission percentage is not fixed. It starts at 5% and rises with your level, up to 20% at the top level.

You go up by bringing restaurants that stay. A referral counts towards your level once it has paid three months and is still a customer. If it leaves, it stops counting and your level can go down: the level reflects what is real today, not what once was.

The percentage is frozen on each invoice at the moment it is earned. Going up a level does not reopen what was already earned, and going down does not take anything away.

What is earned, and when

The partner earns a percentage of every subscription payment the referred restaurant actually makes, during the months stated in their partner panel. The percentage is the one for their level at the moment each invoice is earned, and the window is 12 months by default.

Commission accrues on money received. A refunded, charged-back or never-collected invoice earns nothing, and any commission already accrued on it is reversed.

Nothing is earned on platform fees, tips, payouts to riders, or any amount that is not the restaurant's own subscription.

Payment

Commission is paid to the payout account the partner connects. Until an account is connected, commission accrues but is not paid out.

Taxes are the partner's own responsibility. The Octane does not withhold and does not advise on the partner's tax position.

Fraud

Codes exist for real referrals: someone told a restaurant about The Octane and that is why it signed up.

If we determine that a code was used to claim a referral that did not happen — including a restaurant attributing itself, an arrangement between a partner and a restaurant to split commission, or codes placed on accounts the partner did not bring — we will close the partner account, cancel all pending commission, claw back commission already paid, and pursue recovery through legal channels.

We may withhold a payout while we look into a specific case. We will say so, and we will say why.

Changes and ending the programme

We can change the percentage or the window for future referrals with notice. Referrals already attributed keep the terms they were attributed under.

Either side can end the arrangement at any time. Commission already accrued on payments received before the end date is still paid.