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The agreement grants Whatnot a royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, and distribute user-generated content, including livestream recordings, images, and other submissions, for platform operation and promotional purposes without additional compensation to the user.
This analysis describes what Whatnot's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision authorizes Whatnot to use seller and buyer-generated content, including livestream recordings and product images, for commercial promotional purposes without revenue sharing or separate compensation, which has direct implications for creators and sellers who generate commercially valuable content on the platform.
Interpretive note: The full text of the content license grant was not included in the truncated document excerpt; the description is based on references to the license scope in the document and standard Whatnot Terms provisions.
The updated terms establish mandatory arbitration as the exclusive dispute resolution mechanism for influencers, replacing direct court access in California and Australia. Under the revised language, any dispute with Whatnot must proceed through arbitration under the main Terms of Service, which includes a class action waiver. This means influencers cannot bring class or collective claims and cannot access court proceedings except where the main Terms of Service explicitly permits. The practical effect is that individual influencers seeking to resolve disagreements with Whatnot over payments, account suspension, content disputes, or contractual interpretation must use arbitration rather than litigation.
View change record →The updated terms establish a formal Creator Program for Australian users that defines how creators can submit content for potential monetary or credit rewards. Creators grant Whatnot a one-year, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use submitted videos across paid and organic social media, television, and other platforms, while retaining ownership of the original content. The terms require creators to clearly disclose any material connection to Whatnot, including consideration or free products received, in a form specified by Whatnot and compliant with Australian advertising standards and the AANA Code of Ethics.
View change record →Australian sellers using Whatnot are now required to resolve all disputes through arbitration rather than through Australian courts. The updated terms state that disputes will be resolved exclusively under the main Terms of Service arbitration provisions, removing the previous option to bring legal action in Los Angeles courts or pursue jury trials. The terms no longer include language allowing court proceedings, except where the main Terms of Service expressly permit.
View change record →Current version expands scope to explicitly include livestreams and adds promotional purposes in addition to platform use.
View full change record →Under this clause, content submitted to the platform, including livestream recordings and product images, may be used by Whatnot for promotional and commercial purposes as permitted by the license grant. Users retain ownership of their content but grant Whatnot broad usage rights as described in the Terms.
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"The document references a grant to Whatnot of a license over user-generated content including livestreams, images, and other submissions, described as royalty-free and covering use, reproduction, modification, and distribution for platform and promotional purposes.Excerpt from Whatnot's Terms of Service
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: The breadth of intellectual property licenses in consumer-facing terms of service may engage state right of publicity statutes, particularly in California and New York, where commercial use of a person's likeness or identity without adequate consent may create separate legal obligations. The FTC Act may be relevant if promotional use of user content is not adequately disclosed to consumers who appear in such content. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The license grant covers commercial promotional use by Whatnot, which creates exposure if the scope of permitted uses is not clearly communicated during onboarding or content creation workflows, particularly for seller livestream participants who may not anticipate promotional redistribution of their streams. JURISDICTION FLAGS: California right of publicity law and New York Civil Rights Law may limit the scope of enforceable consent to commercial use of user likeness. EU and UK users are governed by separate terms, and GDPR may impose additional requirements on processing personal data embedded in user-generated content for commercial purposes. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Creators operating under separate Influencer Engagement Agreements or Strategic Seller Agreements should review how those agreements interact with the general content license in the main Terms, as the document references multiple overlapping agreement frameworks. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should confirm that onboarding consent flows for the content license meet the specificity requirements of applicable right of publicity and privacy statutes in each operational jurisdiction. Content moderation and promotional use workflows should be mapped against the license scope to confirm that actual use remains within the authorized parameters.
This provision authorizes Whatnot to use seller and buyer-generated content, including livestream recordings and product images, for commercial promotional purposes without revenue sharing or separate compensation, which has direct implications for creators and sellers who generate commercially valuable content on the platform.
Under this clause, content submitted to the platform, including livestream recordings and product images, may be used by Whatnot for promotional and commercial purposes as permitted by the license grant. Users retain ownership of their content but grant Whatnot broad usage rights as described in the Terms.
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