PayPal Honey faces crisis over alleged affiliate commission manipulation

PayPal is facing a significant crisis of trust regarding its Honey browser extension following allegations of commission manipulation. An investigation by the YouTube channel MegaLag suggested that the extension was covertly rewriting affiliate codes to redirect commissions intended for content creators to the application itself.

The fallout has been substantial. Approximately 7 million users have removed the extension from the Chrome Web Store. Additionally, the number of partner e-shops has dropped from 35,000 to roughly 28,000, and the database of functional discount codes has been nearly halved.

Major affiliate networks and advertising platforms have taken action. Impact.com and Awin Group have suspended accounts and payments due to rule violations, while Rakuten Advertising temporarily disconnected Honey from thousands of merchants, only reintegrating it after strict technical safeguards against commission rewriting were implemented.