Phia shopping app accused of affiliate click fraud

Phia, a shopping app co-founded by Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has been accused of improperly claiming commissions for online sales it did not generate. An investigation by Bloomberg, Capital One Shopping, and independent researcher Ben Edelman found the company's browser extension engaged in practices that violated major digital platform policies. The issue, which the company says has been resolved, involved the extension registering what were described as fake clicks on retail websites.

The investigation, detailed in reports on July 11, 2026, found that Phia's AI-powered browser extension would open a background tab without user interaction during the online checkout process. This tab would inject Phia's own referral code, overriding legitimate codes from other publishers or affiliates, a practice known as "cookie stuffing" or attribution fraud. This allowed the startup to claim a commission on sales it did not meaningfully influence. Independent researcher Ben Edelman stated that the fundamental rule of affiliate marketing is that commission is only paid for a real user click, a standard he said Phia's actions violated.