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They literally advertise this as a feature on their home page in that they give you X% of what they earn from affiliate links. It says a lot about the influence

They literally advertise this as a feature on their home page in that they give you X% of what they earn from affiliate links. It says a lot about the influencers advertising it if they did not realise that Honey is taking their affiliate revenue while reading an ad that says they do. More realistically, most of them likely did know that this is what Honey does and determined that honey paid more than any lost revenue, but know that saying that would lead to some of this outrage being directed at them. As a bonus, by asking users to uninstall Honey they can have their money from running Honey ads previously and money from their affiliate links too. The only way I can maybe see influencers being unaware of this if if they read an ad that only talked about the coupon feature and they never bothered to even visit the Honey homepage or try it themselves, which would be a pretty bad look for them. I also think most users that use Honey have to know that this is what it does given that, again, it's an advertised feature. I suspect most people outraged at this are people that never used the tool in the first place. I certainly think it's a bad product as it defeats the purpose of affiliate links and reduces revenue for anyone using affiliate links for their intended purpose, but I don't think they were misleading anyone about what the product does.

Retric 2y ago
If a company says they make money “selling cars” you don’t assume they get those cars through theft. Same deal here, saying they get affiliate money doesn’t imply they overwrite existing affiliate links which is about a clear a case of tortious interference as you could find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference So, no Honey didn’t disclose what people are complaining about.
- LiamPowell 2y ago
  I agree that it's likely tortious interference, I just don't agree that they're being deceptive. I think it's reasonable to say that most of the target market would be considered tech-savvy enough to know how these purchase affiliate programs work and the influencers advertising it absolutely do. If users are not aware of how this works then I have to question where they think the cashback comes from, and if they are aware that it comes from the business they are making a purchase from then I have to question why they think the business would give a commission to Honey on top of the existing commission to wherever a link was clicked from. I think a majority of users would have to be somewhat wilfully ignorant to not question why money is being given back to them whenever they make a purchase.
  - LocalH 2y ago
    I would posit that the "average user" has no care about how the companies they interact with make their money. The modern world is filled with black boxes to them.
paulryanrogers 2y ago
It took LTT years to detect this behavior despite it coming up in forums and HN. They then decided to stop accepting sponsorships from them. Sponsored ads also often boasted Honey will get you the best deal anywhere. Yet some have found them knowingly preferring their own coupons even though others users had manually entered and successfully used better coupons from elsewhere (while the extension was installed).
- LiamPowell 2y ago
  > Sponsored ads also often boasted Honey will get you the best deal anywhere. I agree that this can be called misleading, or even potentially a scam. > It took LTT years to detect this behavior despite it coming up in forums and HN. They're well aware of how affiliate links work, so as I said above, even if they only advertised the coupon part and never the cashback part they'd have to have never bothered to visit the Honey homepage or tried it themselves. I'm sure they just determined that they'd make more revenue than the lost affiliate revenue at first and later determined they no longer would.
  - Xelynega 2y ago
    Just because they know how affiliate links work, would the wording on Honeys website not lead them to believe they're only being the "affiliate" if they find a deal? How would they have detected this without doing an investigation themselves into how the tool works, and they don't seem to be the kind of company to do that kind of due diligence when accepting ad deals.
mikeryan 2y ago
I think you’re missing the point. Honey is stealing affiliate credits from influencers who don’t have any relationship with them. If a YouTuber posts an link with their own affiliate code and during checkout the user uses the Honey extension to look for coupons Honey steals the affiliate credit even if they don’t have a coupon the YouTuber gets nothing.
- LiamPowell 2y ago
  I very much agree that it's bad in this regard and potentially even illegal, I just don't think they were ever misleading about the fact that they do this.
- Xelynega 2y ago
  *Even if they know there is a coupon, but are hiding it from you because of a partner relationship with the store who hasn't published any coupons to their honey admin portal.

Retric 2y ago

If a company says they make money “selling cars” you don’t assume they get those cars through theft. Same deal here, saying they get affiliate money doesn’t imply they overwrite existing affiliate links which is about a clear a case of tortious interference as you could find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference So, no Honey didn’t disclose what people are complaining about.

LiamPowell 2y ago
I agree that it's likely tortious interference, I just don't agree that they're being deceptive. I think it's reasonable to say that most of the target market would be considered tech-savvy enough to know how these purchase affiliate programs work and the influencers advertising it absolutely do. If users are not aware of how this works then I have to question where they think the cashback comes from, and if they are aware that it comes from the business they are making a purchase from then I have to question why they think the business would give a commission to Honey on top of the existing commission to wherever a link was clicked from. I think a majority of users would have to be somewhat wilfully ignorant to not question why money is being given back to them whenever they make a purchase.
- LocalH 2y ago
  I would posit that the "average user" has no care about how the companies they interact with make their money. The modern world is filled with black boxes to them.

paulryanrogers 2y ago

It took LTT years to detect this behavior despite it coming up in forums and HN. They then decided to stop accepting sponsorships from them. Sponsored ads also often boasted Honey will get you the best deal anywhere. Yet some have found them knowingly preferring their own coupons even though others users had manually entered and successfully used better coupons from elsewhere (while the extension was installed).

LiamPowell 2y ago
> Sponsored ads also often boasted Honey will get you the best deal anywhere. I agree that this can be called misleading, or even potentially a scam. > It took LTT years to detect this behavior despite it coming up in forums and HN. They're well aware of how affiliate links work, so as I said above, even if they only advertised the coupon part and never the cashback part they'd have to have never bothered to visit the Honey homepage or tried it themselves. I'm sure they just determined that they'd make more revenue than the lost affiliate revenue at first and later determined they no longer would.
- Xelynega 2y ago
  Just because they know how affiliate links work, would the wording on Honeys website not lead them to believe they're only being the "affiliate" if they find a deal? How would they have detected this without doing an investigation themselves into how the tool works, and they don't seem to be the kind of company to do that kind of due diligence when accepting ad deals.

mikeryan 2y ago

I think you’re missing the point. Honey is stealing affiliate credits from influencers who don’t have any relationship with them. If a YouTuber posts an link with their own affiliate code and during checkout the user uses the Honey extension to look for coupons Honey steals the affiliate credit even if they don’t have a coupon the YouTuber gets nothing.

LiamPowell 2y ago
I very much agree that it's bad in this regard and potentially even illegal, I just don't think they were ever misleading about the fact that they do this.
Xelynega 2y ago
*Even if they know there is a coupon, but are hiding it from you because of a partner relationship with the store who hasn't published any coupons to their honey admin portal.