Phia accused of ‘cookie stuffing,’ taking affiliate credit on purchases it didn’t earn

The Bloomberg investigation, as well as findings from an independent consultant and a competitor, found that if a user shopped at an online retailer — even if they arrived at the site on their own or through another affiliate program like Wirecutter — Phia would open a new tab in the background. During the checkout process, Phia would override the referral codes from other affiliates and instead inject its own, allowing it to take credit for and potentially receive a commission on a purchase it didn’t earn. 

Once the issue was flagged to Phia, a spokesperson told Bloomberg that all necessary changes had been made to fix the issue. A check by Bloomberg found the issue had been resolved. It’s unclear if the fix is enough to satisfy the retailers and affiliate partners that work with Phia.

TechCrunch reached out to Phia for comment and has not received a response.

This article was updated to clarify the celeb investors in the company.