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When an agency runs a creator's account: what your platform needs to control

Published 4 November 20267 min readBy Pleenk Approve

When an agency runs a creator's account: what your platform needs to control

It's Monday morning, and your support team gets a message from a creator. She can't log in to her account anymore. Her "manager" changed the password. Her earnings keep coming in, just not to her. You open the file. The email address on the account belongs to an agency. So does the bank account.

This is not a rare story. Many creators work with an agency, and most of these partnerships are legitimate. But a platform can no longer pretend these third parties don't exist. The short answer: you don't have to ban agencies. You need to know who logs in, who talks to subscribers and who gets the money. And you need to be able to prove it.

This article is for compliance leads. It explains why the topic has become urgent, then what we would put in place.

Why have agencies become a compliance issue?

In June 2026, the BBC published an investigation into creator managers in the UK. Journalists spoke to 60 creators. Many contracts gave the manager about half of the earnings, and some up to 70%. Several creators described changed passwords and restricted access to their own accounts.

Two days later, the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, called for a public inquiry into exploitation on a major creator platform. Ofcom, the UK's communications and online safety regulator, responded cautiously. It said platforms must assess the risks linked to their service. Offences committed entirely offline, however, fall outside the Online Safety Act, the UK's online safety law.

The topic has also reached the courts. In California, subscribers are suing the company behind a major creator platform, along with several agencies. They claim that private conversations were handled by "chatters", staff who write in the creator's place. In December 2025, the judge threw out most of the claims. On 20 October 2026, according to a specialist legal blog, he allowed part of the claims against the agencies to go ahead. One claim against the platform operator also remains in play at this stage. This is not a ruling on the merits: the case continues.

The message for you is simple. A third party running an account can create three risks: exploitation of the creator, deception of subscribers, and diversion of earnings. Your bank, your PSP (the payment provider that lets you accept card payments) and regulators are watching all three.

What should your terms say about third parties?

Your terms of service are the first thing a regulator will read. In Europe, the DSA (Digital Services Act, the EU regulation on digital services) sets clear rules. Under its Article 14, your terms must describe the restrictions you impose and the moderation tools you use. You must then apply these rules carefully, objectively and proportionately.

A rule that is written but never enforced is a problem. So is a rule that is enforced but never written down.

What we would put in the terms, in plain language:

  • The creator remains responsible for their account, even when an agency helps.
  • Any third party with access to the account must be declared, and identified as such. An agency is not a stranger behind a shared password.
  • Earnings go to an account in the verified creator's name. Not to the agency's account.
  • Subscribers must not be misled about who they are talking to. You set the rule: either ban it, or tell subscribers clearly.
  • The creator can remove a third party's access at any time, and your support team helps them do it fast.
  • Sanctions are spelled out: removing the third party's access, temporarily freezing payouts during a review, banning.

One word of caution: a payout freeze hits the creator's income directly. Explain every decision to them. The DSA already requires this when you restrict an account or content (Article 17). And a creator who is the victim of an agency should not be punished twice.

Who logs in, who talks, who gets paid?

Terms alone are not enough. Your team needs to see what is actually happening on accounts. We would ask three questions.

Who logs in? An account accessed from many devices, in several countries, at all hours, deserves a question. So does a password and email change just before a payout request. These signals prove nothing on their own. They justify a check.

Who talks to subscribers? If your platform allows third parties in the messaging, it needs to know which ones. An agency running twenty accounts from the same computer is not a detail. It must be identified, just like the creator.

Who gets the money? This is the strongest signal. A bank account shared by several creators, or a bank account in the name of a third-party company, should trigger a review. Since 2021, Mastercard has required every person who uploads content to be verified. Acquirers (the banks that collect card payments for you) also want to know where the money goes.

For a compliance lead, the hard part is connecting these three answers. Logins sit in one tool, payouts in another, reports in a third. The day a creator complains, someone has to piece it all together by hand.

What we would do if we had to bring agencies under control tomorrow

Give every agency an identity. An agency working on your platform is verified, just like a creator. It has a single identity, however many accounts it manages. You then know which agency works on which accounts.

Tie payouts to the creator's identity. The account receiving the earnings must match the verified person. Any request to change bank details goes through a new check of the creator themselves.

Set up an account recovery process. A creator who has lost access must be able to prove who they are. Your support team then cuts off the third party and restores the creator. Measure how long it takes: a regulator or a bank may ask for that number.

Open a dedicated reporting channel. A creator under pressure may not write to general support. Provide a discreet form, and a team trained to spot signs of exploitation. The DSA already requires an easy-to-access reporting mechanism (Article 16).

Make bans stick. A banned agency that comes back under another name, with the same people, has lost nothing. The ban must target the identity, not the email address.

Keep a record of every decision. Who was verified, which third party had access to which account, when access was removed, why a payout was frozen. This is the file you will show your PSP or a regulator.

Tell your PSP before it finds out. If you uncover a network of abusive agencies, tell your PSP what you did. A merchant that detects and acts is reassuring. A merchant that learns about the problem from the press is worrying.

How Pleenk Approve can help

The core of Pleenk is a single digital identity. Every creator, co-performer, agency or affiliate is verified with a liveness check: we confirm that a real person is in front of the camera. Their identity is encrypted by Pleenk and stored in a single wallet, a digital identity wallet. The platform receives a proof, never the ID document. Everything is linked to this wallet: their accounts, their consents, the bank account that receives their earnings and any bans. So an agency has a single identity, however many accounts it manages. Pleenk compares the verified identity with the bank account: a third party cannot collect a creator's earnings. A ban is tied to the identity, not to the account. Your moderation stays your own: Pleenk connects to your moderation tool and keeps proof that the checks were done. Your evidence stays consistent from end to end, for your PSP, your bank or a regulator.

Want to bring agencies under control on your platform without losing your creators? Write to us at contact@pleenk.com and we will look at your situation with you.

This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. The proceedings mentioned are ongoing and regulation is evolving. Have your choices reviewed by your lawyer and your payment partners.

Sources

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