Jay Peters is a information editor overlaying know-how, gaming, and extra. He joined The Verge in 2019 after almost two years at Techmeme.
Google has up to date its affiliate advertisements coverage for Chrome extensions after creators accused PayPal’s fashionable Honey browser extension of being a “rip-off.”
Honey was accused of taking affiliate income from the identical influencers it paid for promotion by utilizing its Chrome extension to swap in its personal affiliate hyperlink earlier than you checked out. Based on the up to date Google coverage posted today, this isn’t allowed generally:
Affiliate hyperlinks, codes, or cookies should solely be included when the extension offers a direct and clear consumer profit associated to the extension’s core performance. It isn’t permitted to inject affiliate hyperlinks with out associated consumer motion and with out offering a tangible profit to customers.
Some widespread violations embody:
Inserting affiliate hyperlinks when no low cost, cashback, or donation is supplied.
An extension that constantly injects affiliate hyperlinks within the background with out associated consumer motion.
Google and PayPal didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Final month, YouTuber MegaLag, whose video highlighting Honey’s practices has greater than 17 million views, said that a “Half 2” to his video was “meant to return out weeks in the past” and that “there’s loads happening behind the scenes, most of which I can’t disclose proper now.”
In January, YouTuber Authorized Eagle sued PayPal over Honey’s alleged affiliate practices.
