Ban the practice of’ free pitching’ by agencies and freelancers to brands

Background

Ban 'free pitching' in law so that brands must remunerate agencies and freelancers for pitches or use other ways of selecting whom to work with - e.g. brands could look at past work, pricing and reputation as grounds to engage them, as you would in other professions (e.g. trade).

Additional details

Brands ask agencies to pitch work for free as standard in the UK Creative Industry. The process is extractive, impacting independent business the hardest. Brands with multi-million dollar budgets should not be allowed to ask agencies to embark on work for their business as part of a pitch without paying them for that service. Business intelligence and creative IP is being extracted by brands in some instances - and work that has been created “for free” is being used without engaging the agencies the ideas were stolen from.

Where it’s popular

Constituencies with the most signatures on this petition.