Force Majeure Clauses in Influencer Contracts: What They Actually Cover

The platform goes down mid-campaign. A creator is hospitalised two days before a shoot. A natural disaster shuts down the city where filming was supposed to happen. Neither party did anything wrong — but delivery doesn't happen on time, or at all. That's the third case that neither a non-delivery clause (the creator's fault) nor a kill fee clause (the brand's fault) actually reaches. The same is true of the related case where a platform suspends or bans a creator's account mid-campaign — see what happens if an influencer's account gets suspended or banned mid-campaign for the practical playbook. This article covers the contract clause that formally addresses events like these: force majeure.

This is practical guidance from Make Influence, not legal advice. Use it as a starting point for what the clause should address — have the specific wording reviewed by a lawyer.

What force majeure actually means under Danish law

Force majeure isn't a Danish statute with a fixed section number — it's a general legal principle Danish courts have developed through case law, and it applies even if the contract never mentions the word. Under Danish contract law, three conditions have to be met before a party can invoke it:

• Impossibility — performing the agreement has to be genuinely impossible, not just harder or more expensive than expected.
• An extraordinary, unforeseeable event — the party couldn't have foreseen it at the time the contract was signed.
• Outside the party's control — the event couldn't be prevented, mitigated or overcome by the affected party.

Danish law sets, according to the sources we reviewed, "extremely strict requirements" for what actually qualifies. An agreement becoming unprofitable or more expensive to fulfil isn't enough on its own — only genuine impossibility counts.

Does it need a written clause?

No — as a starting point, the principle applies whether or not the contract mentions it. That doesn't make a clause redundant, though. Without one, it's left to a court to decide case by case whether the conditions are met — a process neither party wants to be in mid-campaign. A clause doesn't expand the right beyond what the general principle already gives; it defines in advance which specific events count for this particular collaboration, and what happens to payment and deadlines while the event lasts. It's the same logic behind why the 12 terms an influencer contract should cover need to be written down explicitly instead of left to what both sides "probably agree on."

What typically qualifies as force majeure — and what doesn't

Note the grey area: a single creator's account getting suspended isn't automatically the same as a platform-wide outage — it's an individual event, not an extraordinary and unforeseeable one in the same sense. That's exactly why it's worth naming account suspension explicitly as its own listed event in the clause, rather than assuming the general force majeure doctrine covers it automatically. See what happens if an influencer's account gets suspended or banned mid-campaign for why that situation should still be handled with the same no-one's-fault logic in practice.

Force majeure, kill fee or non-delivery — three different questions of fault

What the clause itself needs to address

A force majeure clause that actually works takes an explicit position on five things:

• Which events count — the general criteria (impossibility, unforeseeability, outside control), plus a concrete list of examples relevant to a creator collaboration: a platform-wide outage, a natural disaster, and — because a content agreement is typically a personal obligation that can't simply be handed to someone else — the named creator's own serious illness or hospitalisation.
• A notice duty — a concrete deadline (e.g. within 48 hours of the event becoming known) to give the other party written notice.
• Suspension, not automatic termination — obligations are typically paused for as long as the event lasts, rather than the contract ending automatically from day one.
• A backstop termination right — if the event drags on past a set period (e.g. 30 days), either party should have the right to walk away from whatever wasn't delivered, without that triggering a kill fee or a non-delivery claim.
• What happens to fees already paid — for work genuinely completed before the event hit, versus the portion never delivered.

The notice duty — the part everyone forgets

The most common mistake isn't the event itself, it's the reaction to it. Under Danish law, it isn't enough for the event to objectively meet the conditions — the affected party also has to notify the other side loyally and promptly. Failing to do so can eliminate the right to invoke force majeure at all, even if the event itself was genuine and outside their control. A simple, written notice sent immediately — even before knowing exactly how long the disruption will last — is therefore the single most important action if force majeure actually happens.

Worked example (hypothetical)

The figures below are a made-up example to illustrate the logic — not a real customer case.

A brand agrees a DKK 12,000 fee with a creator for two Reels and three stories over a 14-day campaign, with DKK 6,000 paid upfront on signing. After the first Reel and one story are delivered (day 5), the platform the entire campaign runs on goes down globally for 36 hours — nobody can upload or edit content. The creator sends written notice immediately. Because the outage hits the whole platform, not just the creator's own account, and neither side could have foreseen or prevented it, the contract's force majeure clause kicks in: the deadline for the remaining Reel and two stories automatically shifts by 36 hours without counting as late delivery, and the brand can't claim back any of the fee already paid for what's genuinely been delivered.

Decision framework

Make Influence's operational perspective

In our experience, the real value of a force majeure clause is rarely the right itself — as covered above, that already exists under Danish law. The value is that both sides agree in advance what counts, how much notice is required, and what happens to payment, instead of negotiating it from scratch in the middle of an already stressful situation. We recommend keeping the clause short but specific: name the events that are genuinely relevant to a content collaboration, rather than settling for a generic clause copied from a template.

FAQ

Does force majeure apply automatically even if the contract doesn't mention it?

Yes, as a starting point — it's a general legal principle under Danish law. But the conditions are strict, and without a clause it's left to a case-by-case assessment (ultimately a court's) whether they're met. A written clause removes that uncertainty upfront.

Is a platform outage automatically force majeure?

An outage that hits the entire platform and every user at once stands on much stronger ground than a problem affecting only one creator's account. See what happens if an influencer's account gets suspended or banned mid-campaign for that individual case.

Does force majeure excuse the payment obligation too, or just delivery?

As a starting point, it excuses the party that can't perform (typically delivery) — not automatically the other party's obligation to pay for work already done. The clause should take an explicit position on this.

Does a creator's serious illness count as force majeure?

It isn't explicitly confirmed by the general sources behind the broad doctrine, but because a content collaboration is typically a personal obligation that can't simply be handed to someone else, common contract practice is to list the named creator's own serious illness or hospitalisation as its own specific event in the clause, rather than relying on the general doctrine to cover it automatically.

What's the difference between force majeure and a kill fee?

A kill fee applies when the brand itself chooses to cancel — the brand's fault. Force majeure applies when an external event prevents delivery — neither party's fault. The two trigger opposite consequences: a kill fee means the brand owes the creator compensation; force majeure typically just suspends both sides' obligations without compensation in either direction, for as long as the event lasts.

What happens if the disruption never ends?

That's exactly why the clause should include a backstop termination right after a set period — letting either side walk away from whatever was never delivered, without it triggering a kill fee or a non-delivery claim.