Deduplication is the process networks and advertisers use to ensure a single conversion is only ever credited and paid to one publisher, even if multiple publishers' tracking links were involved in the customer's journey. It typically applies attribution rules like last-click to resolve conflicts and prevent the same sale being paid out twice.
Two publishers' cookies are both present when a customer checks out. The network's deduplication logic applies the program's last-click rule, awards the full commission to the publisher whose click came last, and discards the other publisher's claim on that sale.
Yes. Publishers who believe they meaningfully influenced a sale but lost it to deduplication rules sometimes raise disputes with the network or advertiser. Clear, published attribution terms in the program agreement reduce these disputes, since publishers know upfront how conflicts between overlapping clicks will be resolved.
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