\n<\/p>\n
The proposed class action lawsuit<\/a> was filed December 29th in California\u2019s Northern District Court by Stone\u2019s Eagle Team LLP and several other YouTubers\u2019 businesses. It accuses Honey of intentionally replacing creators\u2019 affiliate links with its own, even if it\u2019s not offering shoppers a benefit, depriving creators of money in the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The complaint alleges that PayPal\u2019s practice violates California\u2019s Unfair Competition Law and constitutes interference between creators and their business partners. The plaintiffs are seeking to represent anyone who was part of an affiliate program and had their link \u201credirected to Paypal as a result of the Honey browser extension.\u201d Class action status has not yet been certified by a court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Honey operates by offering to find coupon codes through its browser extension. The MegaLag video last month describes how when shoppers interact with its pop-up offers at checkout, it replaces existing affiliate cookies with its own in the background and gets credit for the sale, whether it actually found a coupon or not. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The complaint lists other ways PayPal is allegedly claiming affiliate commissions. That includes offering users rewards through its Honey Gold Program and encouraging them to \u201cGet Rewarded with PayPal,\u201d which prompts them to check out using PayPal. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n PayPal\u2019s VP of corporate communications Josh Criscoe acknowledged to The Verge <\/em>in our story last month that it\u2019s following \u201cindustry rules and practices, including last-click attribution,\u201d which the lawsuit agrees is a standard practice that credits the most recent affiliate with a sale at checkout. The plaintiffs argue Honey is using that standard practice in a way that\u2019s \u201cdeceitful and clandestine,\u201d luring users into clicking useless pop-ups that insert its code. We\u2019ve reached out to PayPal for a statement on the lawsuit. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lawyers are asking the court to make PayPal pay damages to creators and to permanently forbid it from swapping its own affiliate attribution at checkout. They\u2019ve set up a website<\/a> inviting other creators to join the lawsuit. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n