Most UGC contracts run to a couple of pages, and almost all of that is furniture.
Two lines in there decide what the work is actually worth to you. Neither of them is the fee, and both are usually skimmed by the person they cost the most.
The first: what happens to the footage
Everything about your future income from this shoot sits in how this clause is worded.
Assignment and licence are not the same word
A licence is permission to use the footage, and it can be limited: for this campaign, for these channels, for this long. When the limit runs out, the brand comes back and pays again if they still want it.
An assignment hands the material over. In the United Kingdom, contracts commonly ask for outright assignment of copyright, and once that is agreed the footage is theirs to use for as long as they like, wherever they like, without another conversation.
Neither is wrong. Assignment is a real thing to sell and some brands genuinely need it. The mistake is selling it at licence prices because the difference was one word in a paragraph you skimmed. If a contract asks for assignment, that is the moment to raise the price, not the moment to feel awkward.
The moral rights line
UK contracts often include a sentence about waiving moral rights, which usually surprises creators the first time they notice it.
What it touches is your connection to the work: being credited, and being able to object to how it is changed. It is a normal request in commercial work and it is not a trap, but it is worth reading rather than initialling. If being credited matters to you, ask for the credit to be written in, because a waiver plus a verbal promise is a promise with nothing behind it.
The second: exclusivity
This is the clause that costs creators the most money and it is almost never negotiated, because it does not look like it costs anything.
Free for them, expensive for you
Exclusivity says you will not work with competing brands, usually for a stated period and often in vague terms about the category.
To the brand it is a line in a template. To you it is a decision about what you are allowed to earn for the next several months, in the exact category where you have just proved you are good. A wide category and a long period can quietly remove most of the work available to you.
Read it for two things: how the category is defined, and how long it runs. Beauty is a category you cannot work in. Products competing directly with the Product is a sentence you can live with.
| The clause as written | What it does to your next year | What to propose instead |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment of all rights | The footage is never resold to them | A licence with a stated term |
| Perpetual, all media, worldwide | No renewal will ever be due | Twelve months, named channels |
| Waiver of moral rights | No credit unless written elsewhere | Waiver plus a credit clause |
| Exclusivity in the category | You cannot take that work at all | Exclusivity against named competitors |
| Exclusivity with no end date | It never ends, because nobody remembers | A dated end, in the same sentence |
The last row is the one people are caught by. An exclusivity with no end is not usually malice, it is a template nobody updated, and it stays in force in practice because neither side ever revisits it.
What to ask for
Ask in one message, before the shoot, and keep it short.
Say that your quote covers a twelve month licence on the named channels, that assignment is available and priced separately, that you are happy to waive moral rights if a credit is included, and that exclusivity is fine against named competitors for a stated period. Four sentences, all reasonable, none of them a fight.
Most brands accept most of that without discussion, because the person you are talking to did not write the template and has no attachment to it. The ones who refuse are telling you something useful about the rest of the job.
If the money involved is significant to you, have a solicitor read it once. It is a one off cost, it applies to every contract you sign afterwards, and it is far cheaper than discovering in a year what you agreed to.
Keep reading
- What Nobody Tells You Before Your First Tax Return
- Ad Labels Are Your Problem, Not the Brand’s
- Working with Agencies as a UGC Creator in the UK
- The Best Line in the Video Is the One You Will Have to Cut
- The complete UGC guide for the UK
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Frequently asked questions
Is assignment ever worth agreeing to?
Often, at the right price. Some brands need to own the material for internal reasons and will pay for it. The problem is agreeing to it accidentally, not agreeing to it at all.
What if the brand will not change anything?
Then price the contract as written rather than arguing. A wide exclusivity and full assignment are simply a more expensive job, and saying so calmly is a normal commercial position.
Do I need my own contract?
It helps enormously, and it does not need to be long. A page covering licence, term, channels, exclusivity, payment date and revisions moves you from accepting terms to proposing them.
Should a solicitor look at every job?
No. Once, on a typical contract, so you learn what you are reading. After that you only escalate when something looks different from the version you understand.
Sources
Checked on 27 August 2026. Thresholds and rates change: where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source is right.