What Happens to an Influencer Contract When the Brand Goes Bankrupt?

A late payment is one thing — with a reminder, statutory interest and eventually a payment order, you can usually push a solvent brand to pay eventually. Bankruptcy is different: the brand is no longer able to pay its creditors in full, and your unpaid invoice becomes one of many claims against an estate that rarely stretches far enough. This article covers what actually happens to an influencer contract when the other party goes bankrupt (konkurs under Danish law) — both for work you've already delivered, and for an agreement that's still ongoing. It's also a scenario the general contract checklist doesn't cover in depth — see the 12 terms an influencer contract should cover for the rest of the contract's basic building blocks.

This is general legal orientation based on Denmark's Bankruptcy Act (konkursloven), not advice on your specific case. For a larger claim, a lawyer is the right next contact.

Step 1: File your claim with the estate's administrator — within four weeks

When a company is declared bankrupt in Denmark, the bankruptcy court (skifteretten) appoints an administrator (kurator) to run the estate. The bankruptcy decree calls on anyone with a claim against the company to notify the kurator within four weeks (konkursloven § 128). The deadline matters, but it isn't a hard cutoff — a claim filed later is still normally processed, just at a later creditors' meeting, with the risk of missing an earlier payout round. Your notification should include your name and contact details, the nature and size of the claim, and whether you're also claiming interest. Documentation — the contract, the invoice, proof of delivery and any correspondence about the missed payment — should go in from the start; it's the creditor who has to substantiate the claim, not the estate that has to disprove it.

Step 2: Your claim becomes an "ordinary claim" in the statutory payout order

Danish bankruptcy law ranks creditors in a strict statutory order (konkursordenen), where a lower class receives nothing until every class above it has been paid in full. An unpaid creator invoice — unless something unusual was agreed, such as a security interest, which in practice never happens in influencer deals — falls into the second-to-last class: ordinary claims (simple krav).

The rule that decides everything: a class gets nothing until every class above it is fully covered. In many Danish bankruptcy estates, there simply isn't enough left to cover more than estate costs and employee wage claims — meaning an ordinary creditor like a freelance creator often recovers only a small percentage of the claim (a "dividend"), or nothing at all.

The administrator's choice: does the estate continue the ongoing agreement, or not?

If your agreement with the brand isn't finished — an ambassador deal with several months of deliverables left, for example — a different rule applies. Under konkursloven § 55, the kurator can choose whether the estate will enter into (indtræde i) a reciprocal, not-yet-fully-performed agreement — in other words, take over the brand's remaining obligations and continue the collaboration. As the other party, you can demand that the kurator take a position on this without undue delay, rather than leaving the question open indefinitely.

The consequence of that choice is the most important practical point in this article:

• If the estate chooses to enter the agreement, it has to pay in full for what you deliver after that point — which turns your future work into an estate cost claim (massekrav), the highest-ranked class, rather than an ordinary claim. Work you'd already delivered before the bankruptcy stays an ordinary claim regardless, even if the estate continues the agreement for the rest.
• If the estate chooses not to enter the agreement, the remaining part of it lapses. Any claim for lost profit on what never happens becomes an ordinary claim itself — on the same footing as the original unpaid invoice.

In other words: it's far better to be the creator who's just starting a new phase of an ambassador deal after the bankruptcy than the one waiting to be paid for work already done before it. The estate only has an economic incentive to enter the agreement if doing so serves the estate's own wind-down — typically if an ongoing campaign has value to a buyer of the company's assets. Bankruptcy resembles force majeure in one respect — neither party has done anything wrong — but the consequences are very different: force majeure typically just suspends both sides' obligations temporarily, while a bankruptcy can permanently cost you the whole unpaid amount.

What happens to the usage rights to your content?

A separate, often-overlooked question: what happens to the usage rights you've already granted the brand over content you've already delivered and been paid for? As a starting point, a bankruptcy doesn't by itself undo a permission that's already been granted and fully performed — if the brand paid for and received a usage right to a piece of content, that right doesn't automatically disappear because the company later goes bankrupt. It gets less certain if the estate sells the company's assets on to a buyer who wants to keep using your name, likeness or content in its own marketing: a buyer of the assets doesn't automatically inherit a personal permission you granted the original, now-bankrupt counterparty, unless the contract or a separate assignment agreement expressly allows it — that follows from the general contract-law principle that an agreement can't simply be assigned to a third party without permission. This point is legally more uncertain than the rest of this article and is worth a specific lawyer review if it becomes relevant — particularly if the contract never explicitly addressed whether the usage right could be transferred to a new owner.

Denmark's wage guarantee fund doesn't cover you as a freelancer

If an ordinary employee's employer goes bankrupt, the employee can apply to Lønmodtagernes Garantifond (LG), Denmark's wage guarantee fund, for unpaid wages, pension and holiday pay — within a four-month deadline from the bankruptcy decree. It's worth knowing specifically because many creators wrongly assume a similar safety net applies to them. It doesn't: LG only covers people in a genuine employment relationship, where the employer has the right to instruct and direct the work. As a freelance creator invoicing through a registered business (CVR) or paid as personal income with no employment contract, you're not covered — your only route is the ordinary claim filed with the kurator described above, with its lower ranking and typically partial recovery.

Decision framework

How to protect yourself in practice

• Shorter payment terms. The faster an invoice falls due after delivery, the less time a financially struggling brand has to go bankrupt before you're paid.
• Partial or full upfront payment on larger or longer-running collaborations — particularly ambassador deals and other agreements that span several months.
• Milestone-based payment instead of one large closing invoice: if payment is split by deliverable, your maximum loss from a bankruptcy mid-agreement is one milestone, not the whole fee.
• Tie the usage-rights grant to payment in the contract — state explicitly that the usage right for a given deliverable only takes effect once payment for that specific deliverable has been received, not already on delivery. It's not a guarantee against loss, but it makes clear in the contract's own wording exactly what the estate has actually acquired the right to if things go wrong.
• A quick look at the brand's accounts before entering a large or long-running collaboration. Danish companies' annual reports are publicly available, and while a set of accounts can't predict a bankruptcy, repeated losses or a very late filing can be a signal worth noticing.

Worked example (hypothetical)

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

A creator agrees a DKK 15,000 fee for three posts with a brand: DKK 7,500 is paid upfront on signing, and the remaining DKK 7,500 falls due on delivery of the final post. Two weeks after delivery, before the remaining amount is paid, the brand goes bankrupt. The creator files the DKK 7,500 with the kurator as an ordinary claim. Once the estate's own costs and any employee wage claims are covered, there's only enough left to pay ordinary creditors an 8% dividend. The creator therefore receives 8% of DKK 7,500 = DKK 600 — not the full DKK 7,500, with no way to appeal the outcome, since the kurator has distributed the estate's funds correctly according to the statutory payout order.

Make Influence's perspective

In our experience at Make Influence, a brand going bankrupt is rarer than simple late payment, but the consequence is markedly worse when it happens: a late payment almost always turns into real money eventually, while an ordinary claim in a bankruptcy estate often doesn't. We particularly recommend milestone-based payment and shorter payment terms for longer-running ambassador deals, where the total fee — and therefore the potential loss — is largest. Asking for it isn't a sign of distrust in the brand; it's ordinary credit-risk management that any professional B2B relationship should have. A solvent brand simply changing hands is a more common, and legally different, scenario — see what happens to an influencer contract when the brand is acquired or merges with another company for how an acquisition or merger affects your contract instead. A brand simply changing its name or visual identity, with no change of ownership at all, is a different and much lower-stakes scenario again — see what happens to an influencer campaign when the brand rebrands mid-partnership for that case. See also what happens if an influencer doesn't deliver for the reverse situation, where it's the creator who fails to meet the agreement.

FAQ

How long do I have to file my claim with the estate's administrator?

The bankruptcy decree normally calls for claims to be filed within four weeks (konkursloven § 128), but the deadline isn't a hard cutoff — a claim filed later is still normally processed, just at a later creditors' meeting.

Can I count on recovering my full unpaid fee?

No. As an ordinary claim, you only share in whatever's left once the estate's own costs and any employee wage claims are covered — often a dividend of a few percent, and in many bankruptcy estates, nothing at all.

Am I covered by Denmark's wage guarantee fund as a freelance creator?

No. Lønmodtagernes Garantifond only covers people in a genuine employment relationship. If you invoice through a registered business or are paid as personal income with no employment contract, you're not covered, and your only route is filing an ordinary claim with the kurator.

Am I automatically free of an ambassador deal if the brand goes bankrupt?

Not automatically. The kurator can choose to have the estate enter the agreement and demand it continues — but then has to pay in full for your future work, as an estate cost claim. If the kurator chooses not to enter it, the rest of the agreement lapses.

Do I need a lawyer to file my claim?

No, it isn't required — the claim can be sent directly to the kurator. For a larger claim, or if the estate disputes it, a lawyer can be worth involving.

Can escrow or a payment-protection service prevent this situation?

Not after the fact — once a brand has gone bankrupt, filing an ordinary claim with the kurator described above is the only route for work already delivered. Used from the start of a collaboration, though, an escrow arrangement holds the payment with an independent third party rather than with the brand itself, which sidesteps this exact bankruptcy-clawback risk entirely. See escrow and payment-protection services for brand-influencer deals for how that works and when it's worth the extra fee.