PayPal bought Honey for $4B — then the coupon app stole creators' affiliate commissions

Honey, a browser extension that claims to find shopping coupons automatically, was acquired by PayPal in 2020 for roughly $4 billion. At its peak it had about 20 million users and was PayPal's most visible consumer product — a friendly 'save money' tool bolted onto the checkout flow of nearly every major online store.

On 22 December 2024, YouTuber MegaLag published a video alleging the extension quietly claimed affiliate commissions on sales where no coupon was ever applied, re-attributing purchases to itself at checkout. It also allegedly controlled which discount codes users saw, letting partner brands hide better deals. Within two weeks Honey lost about 3 million users; PayPal told The Verge the extension 'follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution'.

Two class actions followed: one filed 29 December 2024 by three law firms (including LegalEagle's) with YouTubers Sam Denby and Ali Spagnola as plaintiffs, and a second on 3 January 2025 by GamersNexus in North Carolina. In March 2025 Google changed Chrome Web Store policy to prohibit extensions claiming affiliate commissions without providing discounts, and Honey altered its behaviour. The first lawsuit was dismissed in November 2025 with leave to amend; the plaintiffs re-filed in January 2026.

By the end of 2025 Honey had lost roughly 8 million Chrome users. In December 2025 and January 2026 MegaLag published two further videos alleging scraped private coupon codes and code designed to evade affiliate-network detection; PayPal acknowledged the code and said it had been disabled, and Rakuten Advertising removed Honey from its affiliate network. No settlement or final judgment had been reached as of early 2026.