The creator economy is taking a closer look at creator affiliate programs, giving them more scrutiny than before. The move follows creator pushback against Honey, a PayPal-owned browser extension, after reports broke late last year that the company was allegedly skimming creators’ affiliate revenue.
Honey, which finds coupon codes for online shopping, was exposed by YouTuber MegaLag for allegedly hijacking affiliate links from creators and using its own (even in cases where it wasn’t a better deal). This has since resulted in class action lawsuits from several creators including YouTubers Legal Eagle and GamersNexus, against the browser extension, claiming that Honey is taking affiliate revenue that belonged to creators.
It’s not just Honey. Other companies including Microsoft and Capital One are facing similar claims regarding their browser extensions through Microsoft Shopping and Capital One Shopping. Now creator and legal experts expect to see greater scrutiny to these affiliate partnerships and changes to influencer contracts and agreements to include more protections to mitigate risk — on both the brand and creator sides. While some creator agreements already include morals clauses or similar terms for exit deals if a brand engages in disreputable conduct, there’s more interest from creators today for those terms. PayPal, Microsoft and Capital One did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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