Phia Responds to Affiliate Attribution Claims Over Shopping Extension

Shopping platform Phia has responded after a Bloomberg investigation reported that its browser extension claimed affiliate attribution on purchases it may not have directly influenced. Bloomberg’s testing found that the extension could open a retailer page in a background tab and insert Phia’s affiliate referral information without a deliberate click from the shopper. Phia said the reported misattributions resulted from a code issue affecting a subset of users and that the problem has since been resolved. Bloomberg retested the extension after Phia made changes and reported that the attribution behavior had stopped.

Bloomberg Tests Phia Across More Than 50 Retail Websites

Phia was launched in 2025 by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni. Its shopping tools help users compare prices, find discount codes, and search for new and secondhand versions of fashion products. The company can earn affiliate commission when shoppers make qualifying purchases through its platform. Under a standard affiliate journey, a partner generally receives credit after a customer follows its tracking link or deliberately interacts with an approved referral feature.

Bloomberg tested Phia’s mobile browser extension across more than 50 retail websites. According to the investigation, the extension could open a retailer’s website in a background tab during checkout and add Phia’s referral information without the user actively selecting an offer or clicking an affiliate link. The report also found instances in which Phia’s tracking information replaced a referral associated with another publisher. This could give Phia attribution for a transaction initially referred through a different affiliate, advertisement, or marketing channel. Bloomberg said its findings were consistent with separate testing and code analysis conducted by affiliate marketing researcher Ben Edelman and Capital One Shopping, which operates a competing shopping extension.

Phia Attributes Misattributions to a Code Issue

Phia acknowledged the issue in a statement provided to Bloomberg.

The company said it had been informed that code included in a recent release was causing misattributions for a subset of users. Phia said its team worked to identify, mitigate, and resolve the problem after it was notified. Phia also said it is regularly audited by its affiliate partners and maintained that it had previously remained compliant with their requirements. 

Bloomberg reported that the code connected to the automatic referral behavior had been added in December 2025. After contacting Phia on July 7, Bloomberg repeated its tests and found that the extension had stopped automatically claiming referral clicks in the cases where the behavior had previously appeared. Phia has therefore described the issue as a technical problem that has now been corrected. The company has not characterized the behavior as a deliberate attempt to claim commissions generated by other publishers.

Technical Testing Raises Questions Over User Interaction

In a separate technical analysis, Edelman said Phia’s iOS extension contained a setting that could automatically invoke affiliate links when a shopper reached a retailer’s cart or checkout page. The testing indicated that an affiliate link could load in a second tab without the shopper deliberately interacting with it. Edelman argued that this did not meet affiliate program requirements for voluntary and intentional user interaction.

These conclusions remain Edelman’s interpretation of the extension’s behavior and its compliance with affiliate agreements. Phia has maintained that the reported misattributions were caused by a code issue and were fixed after the company was notified.

Why the Reported Behavior Has Been Described as Cookie Stuffing

Cookie stuffing, sometimes called cookie dropping, generally refers to affiliate tracking being placed without a genuine referral or deliberate user action. This can allow a partner to receive commission for a purchase it did not introduce or influence, while potentially replacing the tracking information of the affiliate that originally referred the customer.

The practice has become a greater concern as shopping extensions play a larger role in online purchase journeys. A separate Affiverse explainer on cookie stuffing outlines how the practice can insert or overwrite tracking and create attribution disputes between publishers, advertisers and technology platforms.

Similar questions emerged during the Honey browser extension investigation, which examined whether an extension had provided meaningful value before receiving last-click attribution for a sale. In Phia’s case, Bloomberg reported that the disputed behavior stopped after the company was contacted and updated the extension.