Is marketing for a web hosting company and other services in a way that does not rely on a tree system—such that a direct commission is taken only for new subscribers and without receiving commissions from subscribers below them—considered to be outside the realm of the forbidden (haram)?
The information provided is not sufficient to permit dealing with the aforementioned company according to its network marketing system, due to the presence of prohibitions: the company requires purchasing a product and a monthly subscription to join its system, and the fact that most subscribers aim to profit from recruiting a larger number of subscribers, which makes the transaction based on gambling (qimar) and uncertainty (). There is also another prohibition, which is linking the amount of commission to the subscriber's lifespan and the number of members in their network, which is an impermissible ambiguity (jahalah) according to Sharia. Therefore, it is not permissible to deal with it or to direct others to it.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
Read the full answer on Ftawyhttps://ftawy.com/en/questions/125190
Where this answer came from
- Source platform
- Ftawy
- Original fatwa ID
- 125190
- Added here
- . This is when the answer was added to El Fatwa, not the fatwa's date.
- Text
- Summary from Ftawy's records, reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
- Read the full ruling
- Read the full answer on Ftawy