Phia, the AI-powered shopping platform co-founded by Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, is facing allegations that it improperly attributed online purchases to itself.
Following an investigation published by Bloomberg on July 9, affiliate marketing platform impact.com suspended Phia’s account and began reviewing transactions that may have been affected.
Summary
- Phia, the AI shopping platform co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, has been accused of improperly claiming affiliate commissions on purchases it may not have generated
- Investigations found that the extension allegedly loaded Phia’s own referral links in the background during checkout, potentially replacing tracking information belonging to other publishers or advertisements
- The conduct has been described as potentially constituting “cookie stuffing,” a practice that attributes sales to an affiliate without a clear referral action from the user
- Phia said the issue resulted from a bug introduced through recent code changes and that it has since been resolved
- Affiliate marketing platform impact.com suspended Phia’s account and is investigating transactions that may have been affected
The Rapid Rise of an AI-Powered Price-Comparison App
Phia is a shopping app officially launched by Gates and Kianni in April 2025. Through its mobile app and browser extension, the platform compares the prices of fashion products users are viewing and presents lower-priced alternatives from both retail and resale marketplaces.
At the time of its launch, Phia supported more than 40,000 retail and resale websites.
Affiliate marketing is one of the company’s primary sources of revenue. When a user reaches a participating retailer through Phia and completes a purchase, the company receives a percentage of the sale as a commission.
As of May 2026, Phia had raised a total of $43.5 million, bringing its valuation to $185.5 million. Its roster of investors includes a number of high-profile figures, including Khloé Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, Paris Hilton, and Karlie Kloss.
Referral Codes Allegedly Inserted Behind the Checkout Screen
At the center of the controversy is the possibility that Phia’s affiliate code was inserted even when users had not intentionally clicked a Phia referral link.
Testing conducted by Bloomberg and competing service Capital One Shopping reportedly found that when users proceeded to the checkout page of a retailer’s website, Phia’s browser extension opened a separate tab in the background and loaded the company’s own referral link.
In some cases, this allegedly replaced tracking information belonging to the publisher, advertisement, or creator that had originally directed the shopper to the retailer.
The process could therefore have allowed Phia to claim credit for a sale and receive a commission even when the company had not played a role in generating the purchase.
This type of practice is commonly referred to as “cookie stuffing.” It involves placing affiliate tracking information on a user’s browser without a clear click or intentional action, allowing a company to claim attribution for a subsequent purchase.
Independent Researcher Examines Phia’s Code
Affiliate marketing researcher Ben Edelman also independently examined Phia’s app and underlying code.
According to Edelman, the iOS version of Phia contained a feature that automatically loaded affiliate links without any action from the user.
He also alleged that an industry practice known as “stand-down,” under which an extension refrains from inserting its own affiliate information when another publisher has already referred the shopper to a retailer, was not functioning properly.
Edelman further concluded that the feature was first introduced in version 1.9.33 of the app, released on December 13, 2025.
His findings raised questions about Phia’s assertion that the issue was limited to a bug introduced in a recent release.
Phia Attributes the Issue to a Coding Bug
In response to Bloomberg’s inquiry, Phia said the issue had been caused by a recent code change and that the company had been unaware of the incorrect attribution until it was contacted by external parties.
A spokesperson for the company said, “Within the past 24 hours, we became aware that a recent release had caused our codebase to generate incorrect attribution for some users. As soon as we were notified, our team worked through the night to identify the issue and mitigate its impact, and it has now been resolved.”
When Bloomberg retested the extension after contacting Phia, the previously observed automatic loading of affiliate links had stopped.
Meanwhile, impact.com launched an investigation after receiving information from a third party and concluded that Phia’s conduct was “not consistent with our platform policies.”
The platform subsequently suspended its relationship with Phia and began reviewing potentially affected transactions to determine whether corrective action would be necessary.
Affiliate Marketing’s Transparency Problem
Affiliate marketing depends on attribution systems that accurately identify which publisher, advertisement, platform, or creator generated a purchase.
When a browser extension replaces a referral code immediately before a transaction, a commission that should have been paid to the publisher responsible for introducing the customer may instead be assigned to another company.
Retailers may also end up paying commissions for customer referrals that the affiliate did not actually produce.
For Phia, which has experienced rapid growth since its launch, the controversy extends beyond a potential technical error.
As AI-powered shopping platforms continue to expand, the incident raises broader questions about how tracking and attribution systems operating outside users’ view should be monitored, audited, and disclosed.
Despite Phia’s reported fix, several questions remain unanswered, including the number of transactions involved, the period during which the disputed activity occurred, and the financial impact on other publishers.
The findings of impact.com and other affiliated companies, as well as any further explanation from Phia, will be closely watched.
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