YouTube channels having sponsorships is not a new thing. Often, this is how YouTubers make money. Although some YouTubers may try and vet the sponsors to make sure they are not selling a scam to their audiences, the online coupon service “Honey” has slipped through the cracks.
Honey was first made in Nov. 2012 by Ryan Hudson and George Ruan with the goal to help find internet coupons for people to use at check out. A prototype was leaked to Reddit before it was released to the public, causing it to go viral and gain a bunch of users. It has since been sold several times with Honey being owned and renamed to PayPal Honey in 2020. This extension was primarily marketed by YouTubers. For example, it was one of first sponsors of MrBeast.
It is hard to not to see an ad for Honey and its services. Despite the service’s popularity, a few YouTubers began questioning how it really worked. One YouTuber, Markiplier, questioned how the company was making money back in 2020. This led to some YouTubers looking into Honey like Aphid Tech, who pointed out that Honey was taking data and has a commission codes/link for some websites, but nothing past that and seemed to be doing what was in the best interest of the customer. That was until MegaLag dropped his first video in Dec. 2024.
In the video, MegaLag explains that Honey has been scamming and making money off the Youtubers promoting them. Aphid Tech was right that Honey has commission codes and links, so if people click on Honey right before a sale, even if they have no codes, Honey overrides the site and gets the commission on the sale. This happens on all sales; even if the customers clicked on to the link from another site or from a YouTube channel. YouTubers or other people recommending the sale of things are losing money to Honey.
It has also been uncovered that Honey is not getting the best coupon to the users because of MegaLag’s work. Honey sometimes partners with business to make coupons for the costumers. That is not necessarily a bad thing; however they hide or bury other coupons as part of the deal with business that could be a better deal for users.
PayPal’s Josh Criscoe told The Verge that the extension “follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution, but has not commented on the practice of limiting access to coupon codes.”
This all comes from MegaLag’s first video, and more is supposed to come out in the upcoming videos with interviews of customers and employees as well as documents and emails from the company. However, Youtubers have been coming together against Honey in the meantime by taking down old ads as well as joining a class action lawsuit against Honey with two big lawsuits led by LegalEagle in California and GamersNexus in North Carolina.
