Phia, the online shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is facing scrutiny after an independent researcher Ben Edelman accused it of taking credit for online sales it did not drive. According to a report by Bloomberg, the publication also conducted a testing a found that Phia’s browser extension opened background tabs during checkout, silently inserting its own affiliate code to override legitimate referrals and this practice is known as cookie stuffing. The report further adds that Bloomberg testing Phia’s extension across more than 50 retail websites and observed background tabs opening automatically to set Phia’s affiliate code, even when users had not interacted with the tool. This allowed Phia to claim commissions for sales referred by other platforms, violating industry rules that require commissions only for genuine user clicks.
What Phia said about the controversy
As per the Bloomberg report, a spokesperson of Phia has acknowledged the issue and said, “Within the last 24 hours, we were made aware that in a recent release our codebase was causing misattributions from a subset of users. As soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue.” Bloomberg retested the extension after the fix and found the auto-click behavior had stopped.
How the Phia online shopping app created by Phoebe Gates works
Phia uses AI to compare prices across 40,000+ retail and secondhand sites, offering instant insights on whether an item is fairly priced or overpriced. Users can tap the “Should I Buy This?” button on the Phia browser extension to receive price checks and suggestions for better-priced alternatives. The app is available on iOS and as a Chrome browser extension, catering to both mobile and desktop shoppers.
Fallout in affiliate networks
Affiliate platforms including Impact.com said they stopped working with Phia pending investigation, citing violations of platform policies. Other networks such as CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, and Awin confirmed they were reviewing the allegations. Retailers including Walmart, Nike, and Zara were among those affected by Phia’s referral overrides.
The high profile backers of Phia
Founded in 2025 by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, Phia has raised $43.5 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Notable Capital, and celebrities such as Sydney Sweeney, Khloe Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. The app has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times in the past year, marketed as a “personal shopping assistant” that finds discounts and second-hand fashion items.
