Product Code Database
Honey Science Corporation (Trade name PayPal Honey, previously Honey) is an American technology company and a subsidiary of PayPal. It is known for developing a browser extension that automatically applies online coupons on e-commerce websites. Founded in 2012 by Ryan Hudson and George Ruan in Los Angeles, California, the company was acquired by PayPal in 2020 for approximately $4 billion. The company has come under scrutiny for overriding affiliate links and using misleading advertising.
Honey raised a $26 million Series C round, led by Anthos Capital in March 2017. By January 2018, Honey had raised a total of $40.8 million in venture backing. In 2020, it was acquired by PayPal for about $4 billion, after which Honey became part of PayPal's rewards program.
In December 2019, Amazon claimed to its users that the extension was a security risk that sold personal information. A Wired magazine article, written shortly after the acquisition, questioned whether the claim was motivated by PayPal's newly acquired ability to compete against Amazon.
In 2020, the Better Business Bureau started an inquiry to investigate a Honey advertisement claiming: "With just a single click, Honey will find every working code on the internet and apply the best one to your cart". Honey told the BBB that it was already taking steps to discontinue the ad, and after agreeing to a permanent discontinuation, the inquiry was closed.
In 2022, the company's trade name was changed to PayPal Honey.
Starting in the 2019–20 NBA season, Honey became a practice jersey sponsor for the Los Angeles Clippers, a sponsorship that would later expand into game jerseys in the 2020–21 NBA season. The jersey sponsorship ended following the 2022–23 NBA season.
In a statement to The Verge, PayPal said that "Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution." Ray Fernandez of Techopedia stated that Honey's interfering with the checkout process and "deliberately removing all traces of the original links that led users to a product and replacing them with its own affiliate ID" is not an industry standard. Another PayPal statement made to USA Today said that merchants decide what coupons are offered through Honey.
On December 29, 2024, a class action lawsuit against PayPal was filed in United States federal court by three law firms, including one owned by YouTuber LegalEagle, over the affiliate marketing controversy. The suit claims intentional interference with contract relations and prospective economic relations, unjust enrichment, conversion, and violation of California's Unfair Competition Law. Sam Denby of Wendover Productions and Ali Spagnola were named as plaintiffs. The controversy gained further traction when another class action lawsuit was filed on January 3, 2025, by the technology review outlet GamersNexus through law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, claiming conversion, interference with contract relations, and violation of North Carolina's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
As a result of the controversy, Honey lost roughly 3 million of its 20 million users within two weeks of the claims surfacing. In March 2025, Google updated their policies for extensions published to its Chrome Web Store, explicitly disallowing extensions that claim affiliate commissions without providing discounts. Subsequently, Honey updated their extension to stop claiming affiliate revenue in cases where they are not able to provide a discount. By May 2025, Honey had lost over 4 million users, and similar class action lawsuits had been filed against industry competitors with potentially similar practices such as Microsoft Shopping and Capital One Shopping.
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