Some agencies also provide escorts for longer durations, who may stay with the client or travel along on a holiday or business trip.
Advertisements for escort agencies often carefully skirt the legal line, and avoid specifically offering prostitution or sexual services.
If the employee is solely responsible for arranging any illegal prostitution-oriented activities, the agency can maintain plausible deniability should an arrest be made.
Prostitution in India is legal,[5] but a number of related activities, including owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes.
The legislature in Mexico has modified the law to close some loopholes or grey areas and is, like the United States, zooming in on the "end user" or client.
However, under the Policing and Crime Act 2009 it is a criminal offence to pay for services of a prostitute who is controlled for gain if any third party uses force, threat (whether or not relating to violence) or any other form of coercion.
In 2015 the HMRC set up a dedicated "adult entertainment task force" to collect unpaid income tax from, among others, online escort agencies.
[7] The amount of money that is made by an escort varies with many factors, such as sexual attractiveness, competition from legal and illegal sources, and the commissions to be paid to the agency.
Typically, an agency will charge their escorts either a flat fee for each client connection or a percentage of the pre-arranged rate.
[citation needed] The industry standard for dividing the money is 50% to the escort, 40% to the agency, and 10% to the booker (a kind of sales representative).