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Honey Browser Plugin

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The Honey Browser Controversy

Quick Introduction & Background:

  • CaptialOne faces a nearly identical lawsuit for the same practices. It appears as though this may be an “industry standard” predatory tactic that is more pervasive across coupon extensions en masse which may merit its own page. It may be the case that most coupon-searching browser extensions behave identically in this regard.


Honey is a tool owned by PayPal that was featured in more than a few exposés for their predatory business practices. In a nutshell, Honey is a tool that you can install to your web browser (Google Chrome, FireFox, Edge, Safari…) that promises to “search the web” to find you the best coupon code available for an item they are shopping for online. It works by "looking" at the checkout page of an online store and searches the internet to find a coupon code for that website. Honey promises its users that they find and test discount codes for your item, and if they can’t find one, it doesn’t exist. That sounds wonderful, and within the spirit of making sure customers get the best deal they can. What Honey actually did behind the scenes is predatory to its end-users, business owners, and content creators (people making Youtube, TikTok, etc. videos promoting the product). In a nutshell, on all fronts possible, Honey exists to drive up PayPal’s profits by means comparable to stealing change from the “take a penny leave a penny” dish at your local bodega. It very often did not find the best deal for its users, and more often than not, Honey only made Paypal richer.

What Honey actually did behind the scenes is predatory to its end-users, business owners, and content creators (people making Youtube, TikTok, etc. videos promoting the product). In a nutshell, on all fronts possible, Honey exists to drive up PayPal’s profits by means comparable to stealing change from the “take a penny leave a penny” dish at your local bodega.

Victim Group 1: The Consumers

Honey promises consumers that they will “search the web” for the “best deals available”. What they actually do in practice is search their own databases (in laymans term, "lists") for coupon codes. In some cases, Honey finds a code and tells the end-user. There is no guarantee, however, that Honey actually found that user the “best” discount code. On some occasions, Honey does manage to find discount codes that business owners never meant to make publicly available. More often than not, however, Honey will “search the web” and tell the end user ‘sorry, there are no eligible coupon codes we could find’. This level of inconsistency makes it hard to trust Honey to do the job they promise to do. Further searches for lawsuits with similar claims leads to a very similar suit against Capital One regarding similar practices, contributing to what may be a pattern among these "coupon finding" browser extensions.

Victim Group 2: Business Owners & Digital Storefronts

Additionally, PayPal offers business owners a program where they can partner with Honey, for a monthly fee (PayPal makes money). Business owners who choose to pay this “protection money” receive a guarantee that Honey will only show the discount codes the business wants them to show. In a layman comparison, this is like Tony Soprano walking into a sporting goods store and saying, “Hey, if you pay me $19.00 a month, I’ll have someone make sure your customers only ever see sale tags that you want them to see. If you don’t, I’m going to have those same guys look through your entire inventory, all day, every day, and tell customers exactly how they can pay you as little as possible”. There are documented instances of business owners finding what they thought were 'private' or 'one-time' discount codes being used by Honey users, building a strong incentive to "formally partner" with Honey and give PayPal their protection racket.

Victim Group 3: Online Marketing Affiliates (often, "Content Creators")

PayPal has largely marketed the Honey browser extension via paid advertisements inside of Youtube, TikTok, and other social media video platforms. This is a strong marketing avenue for them, as most people watch that content in a browser, making it easier to install (generating more users for Honey than, say, advertising on cable television). On its face, this is a very common practice and a means of reaching a very broad audience. But behind the scenes, Honey has been sneaking away with those same creators’ commission checks for products they recommend to their audience. There is a technical explanation to this linked below; this section will cover Honey’s practices at a fairly high level for ease of understanding.


Picture yourself in a big-box electronics store. You ask a staff member for help choosing a television and sound system. The staff member is knowledgeable, helpful, and puts in a genuine effort to educate you about not just which product costs the most money, but which product actually fits your needs the most appropriately. Before you check out, the salesperson gives you a ticket with their name to show at the checkout counter, as they make a commission on products they sell you. You’re happy because you have an opportunity to make an educated purchase thanks to the help of the salesperson, and the salesperson gets a small commission for educating you and closing the sale.


When you get to the cash register, you find that the cashier is not a Big Box Store employee, but works for PayPal. The Honey representative tells you that, before you check out, they can search their system to see if they can find you a coupon, to save you even more money. This sounds great! You get to make an educated purchase, knowing that your item is the best for your needs, and you are going to pay as little as possible! What the Honey cashier did not tell you, is that they’ve replaced the Big Box Store’s employee commission slip with PayPal’s. Whether they find you a coupon or not, Honey steals the commission from the person who worked hard to know about the product and spent time and effort to sell you that product. All of their work is made irrelevant and their commission goes to PayPal, a massive corporation who will apparently stoop to a level of pettiness that belongs in a high school lunchroom.

  • It is this practice in particular that has attracted legal attention, as several of Honey’s victims in this instance are/were attorneys who create content about legal controversies (such as LegalEagle and America’s Attorney). You can find more information about the suit here: https://honeylawsuit.com/

Sources/Links:

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