Overview
- Reporting that surfaced Friday, August 14, showed Phia was suspended by the affiliate platform Impact.com and that leaked Slack messages name Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni discussing an "auto drop" cookie mechanism.
- Technical analysis by outside experts found the browser extension opened invisible tabs and injected Phia affiliate codes into purchases that the company did not generate, a practice known as cookie stuffing.
- Phia initially called the activity a software error in July but internal messages from December 2025 indicate founders asked engineers to confirm the auto drop feature was active across sites.
- Bloomberg reported daily revenue fell sharply after Phia disabled the contested code, dropping from roughly $80,000 a day to between $10,000 and $28,000, which the company disputes.
- Legal specialists point to past prosecutions for similar schemes and say the conduct could be pursued as federal wire fraud with potential civil suits by platform partners or investors, including parties tied to eBay.