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Short answer: The Honey controversy is based on more than a viral accusation, but “the biggest influencer scam of all time” is rhetoric—not an established legal finding or a measurable ranking. Honey is still a functioning PayPal-owned shopping extension that offers coupons, rewards, price tracking, and seller comparisons. The serious allegation is that, in some shopping flows, Honey replaced a creator’s or publisher’s affiliate tracking with its own and then claimed the commission under last-click attribution—even when Honey found no useful coupon.
As of August 10, 2026, the strongest public record consists of MegaLag’s testing, independent affiliate-marketing analysis, an Awin investigation that said it confirmed breaches of publisher policies, and a federal court ruling allowing the main creators’ lawsuit to proceed. None of those developments is a final finding that Honey committed fraud, nor has a court established how much money was allegedly redirected.
The controversy in one transaction
The alleged conflict is easiest to understand as a clash between creator-driven demand and extension-driven attribution:
Creator recommends a product
↓
Viewer clicks the creator’s affiliate link
↓
Creator’s tracking identifier is recorded
↓
Viewer shops on the merchant’s website
↓
Honey appears at checkout
↓
Honey allegedly activates or replaces the affiliate identifier
↓
Honey receives the commission under last-click attributionIf Honey genuinely finds and applies a valuable coupon, it can argue that it contributed something to the purchase. The criticism is sharper when no usable coupon is found, the shopper clicks a button merely to dismiss Honey’s message, and the extension still becomes the credited referrer.
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That is why the story is particularly damaging for influencers: some creators promoted Honey to their own audiences, while the extension was allegedly positioned to take credit for purchases those audiences later made through creator links.
What is Honey, and how does it make money?
Honey is a browser extension and shopping service. Its advertised functions include:
- Searching for and testing coupon codes at checkout;
- Applying eligible codes automatically;
- Offering rewards or cashback-style incentives;
- Tracking prices and product availability;
- Comparing some sellers, including certain Amazon sellers; and
- Providing shopping-related offers and promotions.
Honey’s own explanation of its business model says it works with affiliate networks to confirm purchases and receive commissions from merchants. Its data and privacy disclosure says that, on supported websites, Honey may observe checkout activity and compare transaction information with affiliate-network reports to determine whether it receives a commission.
The current Chrome Web Store listing says merchants may pay Honey affiliate commissions and that Honey shares some commissions with users as rewards. As of August 10, 2026, that listing showed approximately 12 million Chrome users, version 19.4.0, updated June 5, 2026.
Receiving an affiliate commission is not inherently improper. Coupon websites, cashback services, publishers, search engines, and creators can all earn commissions. The disputed question is whether Honey was entitled to a particular commission—or whether it displaced a referrer who had already brought the shopper to the merchant without a sufficiently clear, intentional user action.
How affiliate links and last-click attribution work
Affiliate marketing connects a publisher’s recommendation to a merchant sale:
- A viewer watches a creator’s product review or recommendation.
- The viewer clicks the creator’s affiliate link.
- A tracking parameter, cookie, or other identifier records the creator as the referrer.
- The viewer later purchases from the merchant.
- The merchant or affiliate network assigns the commission according to its attribution rules.
Many programs use last-click attribution. In its simplest form, the most recent qualifying affiliate identifier receives credit for the sale. If a shopper clicks a creator’s link and then later clicks a cashback site, the cashback site may become the last recorded affiliate.
PayPal’s defense is that last-click attribution is a widely used industry practice and that Honey follows industry rules. That is a relevant defense, but it does not answer every question. A last click must still be created in a way that complies with the applicable merchant and affiliate-network rules. The central dispute is whether Honey’s particular interactions created a valid last click or improperly overwrote an earlier referral.
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Coverage from ABC News and TechCrunch describes the creators’ lawsuits and PayPal’s position.
What MegaLag alleged
In the December 21, 2024 video Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam, investigator MegaLag alleged that Honey could:
- Replace a creator’s affiliate tracking with Honey’s own tracking when the shopper activated the extension;
- Claim attribution even when no valid coupon was found;
- Receive the last click when a user dismissed a “no deals found” message by selecting a button such as “Got it”;
- Use rewards or PayPal-related prompts to activate its affiliate referral; and
- Display a merchant-approved or merchant-influenced selection of coupons while marketing itself as a way to find the best available deals.
The clearest alleged scenario is:
That does not mean the behavior occurred on every purchase or every merchant. Results could vary by merchant, affiliate network, browser, shopping flow, coupon availability, extension version, and the shopper’s interaction with Honey.
MegaLag published additional investigations, including Exposing Honey’s Evil Business Model on December 21, 2025 and The Honey Scam is Worse Than I Thought on December 30, 2025. Those videos are primary evidence of what MegaLag tested and claimed, but they are investigative presentations—not judicial findings.
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Why the “no coupon found” allegation matters
This is the ethical and commercial core of the dispute.
If a user deliberately activates Honey, receives a genuine discount, and completes the purchase, Honey can say its service contributed value. The case against Honey looks different when:
- No usable discount is found;
- The shopper clicks “Got it” only to dismiss a notification;
- The extension changes the affiliate attribution in the background;
- The shopper receives only a small rewards benefit; or
- The creator’s link, review, or recommendation was the reason the shopper visited the merchant.
Affiliate-marketing researcher Ben Edelman argued in his analysis of Honey’s alleged affiliate breaches that a “Got it” button does not clearly tell a user that clicking it will activate a new affiliate referral. He compared that type of interaction with network rules that may require an intentional click on a marketing offer. Edelman’s work is significant technical and industry commentary, but it is not a final judicial determination.
What “stand down” means
Stand down is an affiliate-industry rule requiring shopping software not to create or overwrite its own affiliate attribution after another publisher has already referred the shopper. The purpose is to prevent a browser extension, loyalty tool, or coupon service from arriving at the final checkout stage and taking credit for demand generated by someone else.
The consolidated complaint cites policies from Rakuten, Awin, Partnerize, Commission Junction, AvantLink, and other networks. According to the complaint, those policies require software publishers to recognize publisher-driven traffic and refrain from activating their own affiliate link during the relevant shopping session.
The complaint alleges that Honey:
- Failed to stand down after another affiliate referred the shopper;
- Used shorter stand-down windows instead of respecting the full shopping session;
- Continued to claim attribution after prior merchant or publisher referrals; and
- Used code that allegedly behaved differently for ordinary users and likely affiliate-network testers.
It also alleges that Honey checked signals such as affiliate-network login cookies or account characteristics to identify possible testers. Those are allegations from the complaint and related investigations, not proven criminal conduct.
The evidence became stronger in 2026—but not final
The case is not based solely on a YouTube video. The public evidence falls into several different categories:
| Evidence | What it establishes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Honey’s disclosures | Honey earns merchant-side affiliate commissions, shares some with users as rewards, and monitors supported shopping activity for commission reporting. | That any particular commission was improperly taken. |
| MegaLag’s testing | The investigator documented shopping flows that he says changed affiliate attribution and exposed coupon-related behavior. | That every shopper, merchant, or version of Honey behaved identically. |
| Affiliate-network rules | Several networks have policies requiring software publishers to respect prior referrals or stand down. | That Honey violated every cited rule in every transaction. |
| Awin’s investigation | On January 21, 2026, Awin said its internal investigation confirmed breaches of its publisher policies. It said payments and access to new advertiser programs were suspended, with remediation and source-code verification. | That Awin confirmed every allegation in the lawsuits or determined fraud and damages. |
| Federal court ruling | On June 22, 2026, the court found that the amended creator complaint plausibly alleged injury, contractual entitlement, and test purchases in which Honey changed attribution. | That Honey or PayPal is liable, that fraud occurred, or that a particular amount was diverted. |
Awin’s public statement is especially important because it is an industry-network finding rather than a conclusion drawn only by the plaintiffs or a video investigator. Still, “breaches of publisher policies” is narrower than a finding of fraud or a ruling on all of the creators’ claims.
Edelman separately argued that Honey’s behavior appeared to conceal noncompliance from testers and that Honey later changed the relevant configuration. His accounts in Honey: Next Steps and his response to Honey should likewise be understood as independent technical analysis, not as a final court ruling.
What Honey and PayPal say
PayPal has disputed the lawsuits and said Honey:
- Is free for consumers to use;
- Provides savings when possible;
- Helps merchants reduce cart abandonment and comparison shopping;
- Follows industry rules and practices; and
- Uses last-click attribution, a system widely used by major brands.
Honey co-founder Ryan Hudson also disputed the characterization of Honey as a scam. In a later Reddit AMA summarized by Hello Partner, Hudson said vanity codes were intended to support creator attribution and said equivalent-value codes were supposed to be a policy requirement under his management.
In January 2026, PayPal reportedly said that the relevant stand-down code predated PayPal’s acquisition of Honey and had been disabled. That explanation is disputed. The amended complaint alleges that PayPal received notice of stand-down violations after the acquisition and continued operating the extension. The factual questions include when the code was written, what PayPal knew, what was disabled, whether later updates altered the behavior, and whether remediation was sufficient.
PayPal’s position is reported in Hello Partner’s coverage. The existence of a pre-acquisition code claim does not, by itself, resolve PayPal’s potential responsibility for conduct after the 2020 acquisition.
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Why the influencer connection made the story explode
Honey’s creator-promotion strategy gave the controversy its apparent paradox. The Honey Ambassador Program terms provide for a US$5 commission per qualified referral, subject to eligibility rules and a minimum payout threshold.
That creates the damaging optics:
Creators promoted Honey to their audiences. Those viewers installed the extension. The extension was then allegedly positioned to claim credit for purchases that the same audiences made after following creator links.
This does not show that every sponsored creator knew about, approved, or benefited from the alleged attribution practices. Linus Media Group said it had previously confronted Honey about affiliate-link behavior and ended the sponsorship; other creators distanced themselves after the allegations became public. Dexerto’s report describes that dispute.
For a creator, the possible harm is not limited to one unpaid commission. Affiliate data can affect:
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- Merchant confidence in the creator’s traffic;
- Eligibility for affiliate programs;
- Negotiations with sponsors; and
- The creator’s ability to prove that a review or video generated sales.
The Washington Post reported on creators who believed their affiliate revenue fell despite continued traffic and engagement. But a decline alone does not prove Honey caused it. Seasonality, returns, tracking failures, changes in merchant programs, traffic quality, and other browser extensions can also affect affiliate earnings.
Did Honey promise to find the best coupon?
Honey markets itself as a tool for finding and applying coupons across tens of thousands of shopping sites. Its current Chrome listing promotes automatic coupon searches and deal-finding.
Its terms of use, however, say the service may not always find the best deal and disclaim responsibility for missed savings or rewards opportunities. That creates an important distinction between four different ideas:
- Marketing: Honey presents itself as a way to search for deals and coupons.
- Coupon inventory: Merchants may control or approve which offers are available to Honey.
- Coupon validity: A code found elsewhere may be expired, unauthorized, restricted, or unavailable to every shopper.
- “Best” deal: The mathematically largest discount is not necessarily the best authorized or verifiable offer available through Honey.
MegaLag and consumer plaintiffs alleged that merchants could influence which coupons Honey displayed and that Honey sometimes omitted better publicly available codes. A separate lawsuit brought by UK consumers alleged that users paid more because Honey did not provide the best available coupons.
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PayPal’s acquisition and the ownership question
PayPal agreed to acquire Honey for approximately $4 billion in November 2019, and the acquisition closed in January 2020. Axios reported the acquisition agreement.
That ownership matters because PayPal is a large payments company with greater resources and visibility than a small coupon start-up. It does not, however, automatically establish that PayPal designed or knew about every piece of Honey code. PayPal says at least some relevant code predated the acquisition. Plaintiffs allege that PayPal was notified about violations after acquiring Honey and continued to operate the extension.
The dispute is therefore about more than who originally wrote the code. It also concerns later knowledge, oversight, updates, remediation, and whether the allegedly problematic practices continued under PayPal ownership.
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What happened in court?
The consolidated creator litigation
The main case is In re PayPal Honey Browser Extension Litigation, Case No. 5:24-cv-09470-BLF, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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The creators’ January 2026 second amended complaint asserts claims including:
- Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations;
- California computer-access violations;
- Unjust enrichment;
- Intentional interference with prospective economic advantage;
- Intentional interference with contractual relations;
- California unfair-competition claims; and
- Washington consumer-protection claims.
On November 21, 2025, the court dismissed the first amended complaint with leave to amend. The court identified issues including standing and the failure to plausibly connect the alleged lost commissions to commissions the plaintiffs were contractually entitled to receive. The order is available here.
On June 22, 2026, the court denied PayPal’s motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. The court found that the plaintiffs had plausibly alleged concrete injury, contractual entitlement to commissions, and test purchases where the alleged Honey interaction changed the attribution result. The ruling allows the case to proceed.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThat is a meaningful procedural development, but it is not a verdict. The court did not finally determine that Honey committed fraud, that PayPal is liable, that the plaintiffs will win at trial, or that a particular amount of money was diverted.
The separate consumer case
A different case brought by UK consumers over allegedly inferior coupon results was dismissed on June 15, 2026. Its dismissal order is important context: not every Honey-related lawsuit has survived, and different cases involve different plaintiffs, contracts, jurisdictions, and legal theories.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is Honey still available, and is it safe?
Honey remains available through the official Chrome Web Store as of August 10, 2026. It has not been shown by the supplied record to be malware, and the Chrome listing is not evidence that Google banned it.
Google’s affiliate-ads policy requires prominent disclosure, a direct and transparent user benefit, and related user action before affiliate links, codes, or cookies are included. That policy addresses affiliate behavior generally; it is not a public adjudication that Honey was banned or is malware. The policy is available in Google’s Chrome Web Store rules.
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- Malware safety: The cited record does not establish that Honey is malware.
- Privacy: The Chrome listing discloses categories including personally identifiable information, financial or payment information, location, web history, user activity, and website content. Review those disclosures before installing any shopping extension.
- Financial neutrality: Honey is not a neutral coupon window. Its business model includes merchant-side affiliate commissions and user rewards.
- Deal quality: Honey’s own terms do not guarantee the best available price or uninterrupted rewards.
- Attribution: The controversy concerns whether Honey may interact with affiliate tracking after another publisher sent the shopper.
A consumer can reasonably decide that the convenience and potential savings outweigh those trade-offs. Another consumer can reasonably uninstall it, especially if they regularly shop through creator or publisher links.
What consumers should do
If you use Honey or another shopping extension, these steps reduce confusion:
- Compare the merchant’s direct promotion with the extension’s result.
- Do not assume that clicking a dismissal button has no commercial consequence.
- If you want to support a creator, check the creator’s affiliate link before activating another shopping tool.
- Consider a separate browser profile for shopping extensions.
- Review the extension’s current permissions and privacy disclosures.
- Use the official browser-store listing rather than an unofficial download.
- Uninstall the extension if you do not want it interacting with checkout pages.
Honey provides uninstall instructions for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Edge. Removing the extension is separate from deleting a Honey account; account-deletion instructions are provided separately.
What creators and affiliate publishers should do
Creators should preserve evidence rather than assume that every missing commission came from Honey. A practical investigation can include:
- Saving affiliate-program contracts and the network’s current policies.
- Recording the affiliate ID or tracking parameter used in each link.
- Running controlled tests in a clean browser profile.
- Comparing a purchase with Honey disabled against one with Honey enabled.
- Recording whether a coupon was actually found, applied, or merely dismissed.
- Preserving timestamps, order IDs, screenshots, network reports, and merchant correspondence.
- Asking the merchant or affiliate network whether Honey received credit for the transaction.
- Avoiding a specific dollar-loss claim unless the merchant or network can verify the counterfactual.
The key issue is not simply, “I had an affiliate link and did not get paid.” A creator may need to establish that:
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- The affiliate agreement entitled the creator to the commission;
- The shopper arrived through the creator’s link;
- Honey or PayPal changed the attribution;
- Honey received the commission; and
- The creator suffered a traceable loss.
The June 22, 2026 order is important because it found that the amended complaint plausibly alleged those elements at the pleading stage. Discovery, later motions, settlement, or trial could still produce a different result.
What merchants and affiliate networks should examine
Merchants and networks should distinguish an extension that creates incremental demand from one that merely appears at checkout after another publisher generated the demand. Relevant questions include:
- Does the extension add an affiliate identifier to a transaction that already has one?
- Does it stand down for the full shopping session?
- Can “no coupon found” interactions create attribution?
- Did the shopper receive a clear, direct benefit before the affiliate code or cookie was activated?
- Does the program permit software-generated attribution?
- Are merchant-approved coupon lists consistent with public coupon claims?
- Would the sale likely have occurred without the extension?
Awin’s response illustrates the possible enforcement tools: payment suspension, restrictions on access to new advertiser programs, remediation commitments, and source-code verification.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat the “biggest influencer scam” label gets right—and wrong
The label captures why the allegations resonated. Honey was promoted by major creators, installed by millions of users, owned by a major payments company, and able to operate at the point where a purchase was completed. Those factors make any alleged attribution shift unusually visible and potentially consequential.
But the phrase also overstates what has been established:
- No reliable public source ranks Honey against every influencer fraud, scam, or affiliate-marketing abuse.
- No court has ruled that Honey committed fraud.
- No verified public figure establishes that millions of dollars were redirected.
- There is no evidence in the cited record that every influencer or every purchase was affected.
- The separate coupon allegations are not the same as the affiliate-attribution allegations.
There is also a wider industry issue. Last-click attribution, coupon extensions, retargeting, loyalty programs, and cashback tools can all create conflicts between the person who generated demand and the service that appears last in the checkout process. Honey may be an especially visible example of a broader structural problem rather than the only company whose attribution mechanics can disadvantage the original referrer.
The most accurate verdict
Honey is a real shopping product with real coupon and rewards functions. Its affiliate business model is openly disclosed. At the same time, credible evidence supports the allegation that some Honey practices violated affiliate-publisher rules and redirected attribution from creators or other publishers in certain circumstances.
The legal question remains unresolved. The principal creator lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss on June 22, 2026, while a separate consumer case was dismissed. The surviving case can now move into further litigation, but that ruling does not establish liability or damages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Honey officially a scam?
No court cited here has issued a final finding that Honey is a scam or committed fraud. MegaLag and critics use that label because they allege Honey redirected creator affiliate attribution. Awin said its investigation confirmed breaches of publisher policies, and the main creator lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss, but the merits remain unresolved.
Did Honey steal money from every influencer?
There is no evidence that every influencer or every purchase was affected. The allegations concern particular merchants, affiliate networks, browsers, shopping flows, extension versions, and user interactions. Creators would need transaction-level evidence showing that they were contractually entitled to a commission and that Honey received the disputed attribution.
Is Honey still available?
Yes. As of August 10, 2026, Honey remained listed in the official Chrome Web Store, which showed approximately 12 million Chrome users and version 19.4.0. Availability does not resolve the affiliate-attribution dispute.
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Should I uninstall Honey?
That depends on your priorities. Honey may find valid coupons or rewards, but it can interact with shopping activity and its business model includes affiliate commissions. If you regularly use creator links or do not want a shopping extension involved at checkout, uninstalling it is a reasonable choice. Removing the extension does not automatically delete your Honey account.
Does Honey always hide the best coupon?
That broad claim is not established. Plaintiffs allege that Honey sometimes omitted better available coupons or displayed merchant-controlled offers, while Honey’s terms say it does not guarantee the best deal. Coupon validity, merchant authorization, availability, and the meaning of “best” all matter.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: “The biggest influencer scam of all time” is a slogan, not a proven ranking. But the controversy is not empty internet outrage. Honey’s own disclosures confirm that it monetizes shopping attribution; Awin said it confirmed policy breaches; and the main creators’ lawsuit survived dismissal. The unresolved questions are how often Honey displaced another referrer, whether those commissions legally belonged to the original publishers, whether consumers received a clear benefit before attribution changed, and how much money—if any—was ultimately lost.
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