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YouTuber LegalEagle sues PayPal over ‘sleeping leech’ Honey extension

A new lawsuit alleges that the PayPal-owned browser extension Honey is cheating creators out of money. Honey, which PayPal acquired for $4 billion in

Among other accusations, MegaLag said that if a YouTuber or other creator promotes a product through an affiliate link, if the viewer has installed Honey, the extension will surreptitiously substitute its own link when the viewer makes a purchase — even if Honey didn’t provide any discounts. The company shared a statement with The Verge saying it disputes the allegations and will defend itself “vigorously,” and adding that “Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution” (an advertising attribution system where the final touchpoint gets all the credit for a purchase). Naturally, Stone also published a video about the lawsuit, which also emphasized Honey’s marketing efforts, in which creators promoted the browser extension to their audiences — and once those audiences installed it, Stone said it was like a “sleeping leech” in their browsers, “waiting for the viewer to conduct a transaction.”

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