Phia, a shopping application co-founded by Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Sophia Kianni, is at the center of fraud allegations concerning its commission practices. A recent investigation by Bloomberg reported that the app's browser extension allegedly used a technique known as "cookie stuffing" to claim credit for retail purchases it did not influence, potentially leading to unearned commission payments from retailers.
The core of the allegations, as detailed by Bloomberg, revolves around a discrepancy between Phia's internal communications and its public statements. Sources familiar with internal communications, cited by Bloomberg, indicate that the company's founders, Gates and Kianni, were aware of the problematic practice as early as December 2025. This timeline directly contradicts an initial statement provided by a Phia spokesperson to Bloomberg in July, which characterized the discovery of the issue as "recent and unexpected." The spokesperson had stated at the time, "As soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue."
Cookie stuffing is a deceptive method in digital affiliate marketing where a tracking file, or cookie, is placed into a customer’s checkout session without any legitimate interaction or influence from the company benefiting from it. Once this cookie is present, a retailer's tracking system may mistakenly attribute the sale to the involved company, triggering an undeserved commission payment. Phia's business model relies on these commissions, paid by retailers every time a shopper completes a purchase after using its browser extension to find discount codes.
The financial scope of the alleged fraud is significant. An internal Slack message, attributed to a Phia data scientist and dated July 7, estimated that cookie stuffing accounted for 51 percent of the sales the app claimed credit for throughout June 2026. This suggests that more than half of the company's reported sales volume for that month may have originated from purchases where the app played no actual role in generating.
Following the fallout from Bloomberg’s reporting, Phia issued a new statement to multiple news outlets, providing a more specific timeline for its actions. The company spokesperson stated, "Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7." Phia also indicated that it is now working to reverse fraudulent transactions with its brand partners who were affected by the misattributed commissions. Furthermore, the company announced plans to hire a head of compliance, an individual tasked with preventing similar issues from recurring.
Despite these measures and updated statements, one crucial detail remains unaddressed by Phia: whether Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni personally knew about the alleged cookie stuffing practice before it became public knowledge. This omission leaves a central question from Bloomberg's reporting unanswered by the company itself, even as Phia works to rectify the financial implications with its retail partners.
Phoebe Gates has garnered public attention in her business ventures, partly due to her father's prominent status in the American technology industry. Sophia Kianni has also built a public profile alongside Gates as they positioned Phia within the competitive market for price-comparison apps. The ongoing controversy highlights the challenges of maintaining transparency and ethical practices in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital commerce, particularly when internal records reportedly conflict with public assurances. The reliance of Bloomberg's account on unnamed sources with knowledge of internal matters underscores the complexity of verifying such allegations without direct, on-the-record confirmations from the company's leadership. The discrepancy between the company's internal communications and its public narrative continues to shape the public reception of the story.
