Major Investigation Leads to Honey Browser Extension Lawsuit

Recently, content creator MegaLag has brought attention to concerns regarding Honey, a browser extension owned by PayPal [1]. Honey is designed to assist users in finding and applying various online coupons to enhance their shopping experience [2]. However, MegaLag’s investigation suggests that the platform may not always serve the best interests of consumers. Instead of consistently finding the best deals, Honey appears to collaborate with certain businesses, creating an environment where customers may be led to believe they are receiving optimal savings. Such an evil genius business model.

But worse than that, they also screwed over the influencers promoting Honey by stealing their affiliate commissions. Every interaction a Honey user does with the extension robs affiliate marketers such as YouTubers or influencers of their affiliate commissions. This is done by replacing the cookies with Honey’s own cookies to steal the commission. MegaLag’s video did a great job explaining it to the audience, so you should check it out here. The video is the first part of a three-part series, and the teaser for the video foreshadows something worse. When it’s not screwing up customers, it screws up small online businesses by allowing its users to exploit “hidden” promo codes. Heck, they even allow a user to buy an item for absolutely free because of the discount given to the user. I’ll definitely watch part two when it goes live.

LegalEagle Lawsuit

Because of this, a class action lawsuit was filed against Honey. LegalEagle [4], America’s Attorney [5], and Attorney Tom [6], three “LawTubers” filed a case against Honey. They sued on behalf of creators such as Wendover Productions, LLC., and The Charismatic Voice LLC. There are five plaintiffs in total, and the case focuses on Honey’s exploitative practices against content creators, which resulted in the diversion of millions of dollars in creators’ commissions to PayPal. They have uploaded videos on their channels, which you should watch. LegalEagle emphasizes how the Honey has greatly affected creators who make a living off of affiliate links. America’s Attorney, on the other hand, breaks down the lawsuit they filed in great detail in his YouTube video. And finally, Attorney Tom debunked several misconceptions about the case. As explained in the video, they can’t create a class action lawsuit for Honey users since there is a forced arbitration clause that prevents the users from taking their claims to court and instead forwards them to private arbitrators that are paid by the companies, which eventually benefit these companies. [7]. I hope that these attorneys win the lawsuit since Honey’s business practices hurt everyone: users, content creators, and small businesses, while PayPal takes all the money. It is also an eye-opener that a trusted payment option like PayPal can’t be fully trusted since, back then, it was found that they apparently stole money from users if you violated these policies [8].

Lessons We Should Learn

Overall, we should all learn from the lessons that this exposé taught us. Nothing in life is absolutely free, especially if the product is not open-source. You might pay with your data and ads or get your money stolen. Also, the original developers of Honey (back when it wasn’t bought by PayPal for $4 billion) are developing Pie, an adblock extension that not only blocks ads but allows you to get paid for these ads [9]. However, it’s important to be cautious.Upper Echelon made a video, which you should watch, about how this might be another scummy situation where they take all the ad revenue that should be going to creators. So, if you are reading this, please do not install Pie, and if you have Honey installed, please uninstall it already. If you want to find coupon codes, it’s much better to do it manually since you will surely get working codes and better deals if you search for them yourself.

References

[1] https://www.dexerto.com/cdn-image/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/28/Honey-Logo-1024x691.jpg?width=1200&quality=75&format=auto
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4yL3YTwWk
[3] https://www.joinhoney.com
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H4sScCB1cY
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwBD-TQlhfU
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItiXffyTgQg
[7] https://www.caoc.org/?pg=issdispute
[8] https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/5:2022cv00248/390506/37/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTxnM3J0I0k