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

Phia 被指控进行“Cookie 填充”，窃取非自身促成的购物佣金

Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe Gates, and Sophia Kianni, has been accused of a practice known as “cookie stuffing,” which may have helped the product receive commissions and credit for sales it did not actually generate, according to a Bloomberg investigation. 据彭博社的一项调查显示，由比尔·盖茨之女菲比·盖茨（Phoebe Gates）和索菲亚·基亚尼（Sophia Kianni）共同创立的购物初创公司 Phia，被指控进行一种被称为“Cookie 填充”（cookie stuffing）的操作。这种做法可能使其在并未实际促成销售的情况下，获取了佣金和销售业绩。

The report has sparked controversy and led to Phia’s suspension from Impact.com, a leading affiliate and influencer platform. Other startups have been sued over “cookie stuffing,” notably Honey, which is owned by PayPal and remains the subject of an ongoing class action lawsuit. 该报道引发了巨大争议，并导致 Phia 被领先的联盟营销和网红平台 Impact.com 暂停服务。此前，其他初创公司也曾因“Cookie 填充”被起诉，其中最著名的是 PayPal 旗下的 Honey，该公司目前仍面临集体诉讼。

Founded in 2025, Phia has raised more than $40 million in funding and has a star-studded list of investors, including Khloé Kardashian and Hailey Bieber. The startup developed an app as a browser extension that works somewhat like Google Flights, but for shopping. Phia helps customers find the lowest-priced items across various retailers as well as discount codes to use when shopping. The company takes a commission on purchases made through the platform, an industry practice known as affiliate marketing. Phia 成立于 2025 年，已筹集超过 4000 万美元的资金，其投资者阵容星光熠熠，包括科勒·卡戴珊（Khloé Kardashian）和海莉·比伯（Hailey Bieber）。该初创公司开发了一款浏览器扩展程序，其功能类似于购物版的“谷歌航班”（Google Flights）。Phia 旨在帮助消费者在不同零售商处寻找最低价格的商品，并提供购物折扣码。该公司通过平台促成的购买行为抽取佣金，这在业内被称为联盟营销。

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. 彭博社的调查以及一名独立顾问和竞争对手的发现显示，如果用户在某在线零售商处购物——即使他们是自行访问该网站，或是通过 Wirecutter 等其他联盟计划进入——Phia 都会在后台打开一个新标签页。在结账过程中，Phia 会覆盖其他联盟伙伴的推荐代码，并植入自己的代码，从而使其能够将非自身促成的销售归功于己，并可能因此获得佣金。

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. 在问题被反馈给 Phia 后，其发言人告诉彭博社，公司已做出所有必要的更改以修复该问题。彭博社的核查显示该问题已得到解决。目前尚不清楚这一修复措施是否足以让与 Phia 合作的零售商和联盟伙伴满意。TechCrunch 已联系 Phia 请求置评，但尚未收到回复。