PayPal Honey has lost more than seven million Chrome users and around 7,000 merchant partners since YouTuber MegaLag first accused the coupon extension of diverting creator commissions.
Honey is designed to search for coupon codes when shoppers reach an online checkout. However, MegaLag’s December 2024 investigation alleged that the extension also replaced creators’ affiliate tracking with its own, allowing Honey to receive commissions from purchases those creators drove.
PayPal disputed the allegations at the time, saying Honey followed established industry practices, including last-click attribution.
MegaLag returned on August 11 with a new investigation titled “Honey Gets Terminated as Lawsuits Proceed,” documenting the users, merchant partnerships, and affiliate network access that Honey has lost since his original exposé.
Third-party data compiled by researcher Jelte and presented in the video found that Honey’s merchant partnerships had fallen from around 35,000 in December 2024 to just over 28,000.
MegaLag also reported that Honey had lost seven million Chrome users. The Chrome Web Store now lists the extension at 12 million users, down from more than 20 million before the controversy began.
According to the investigation, Honey’s collection of coupon codes has also declined from approximately 90,000 to 50,000. MegaLag claims at least 10,000 of the remaining codes have expired.
Creator lawsuit against PayPal clears major hurdle
The fallout extended beyond individual users. Rakuten Advertising removed Honey from its network in January 2026, cutting its access to approximately 2,000 retailers, while Impact.com suspended its account and removed it from its marketplace.
Awin Group also confirmed that Honey had breached its publisher policies and suspended payments and access to new advertiser programs. Rakuten later reinstated Honey after introducing a new system designed to prevent extensions from overwriting existing affiliate tracking.
PayPal responded to the network action by saying the disputed code had been deactivated, was implemented before it acquired Honey, and appeared to affect less than 0.1% of its traffic. MegaLag disputes both the company’s timeline and its characterization of how many users were affected.
Meanwhile, the consolidated creator lawsuit against PayPal has survived another attempt to have it dismissed.
On June 22, US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman denied PayPal’s motion to dismiss the creators’ second amended complaint. The judge found that the updated complaint plausibly alleged that each named plaintiff lost commissions they were contractually entitled to because of PayPal’s alleged conduct.
MegaLag called the ruling “a huge win for content creators and a massive blow to PayPal.”
The decision allows the case to proceed into discovery, where the plaintiffs could seek internal communications, technical records, and testimony from PayPal employees. However, it is not a finding that PayPal is liable, and the proposed class action has not yet received class certification.
Dexerto previously covered LegalEagle and other creators launching the lawsuit against Honey
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
