Phia app to refund commissions after affiliate attribution errors

The shopping-assistant startup Phia, co-founded by Phoebe Gates, is taking steps to correct commission payments after a Bloomberg report revealed the company had been credited for sales it did not generate. An email obtained by Business Insider shows Phia is cooperating with affiliate network Impact.com to refund affected advertisers and reattribute commissions.

"We’re reprocessing all actions credited to Phia between June 20 and July 29 that had not yet been paid out," Impact.com said in a statement, adding that the actions will be either reassigned to the proper publisher or refunded to advertisers.

Phia’s business model relies on a browser extension that claims discounts and earns a cut of sales through affiliate networks. The company acknowledged earlier this month that a software update caused its extension to claim credit for sales it did not influence, and said the issue had been resolved.

Impact.com indicated that Phia has been temporarily suspended from its marketplace and must demonstrate compliance before reinstatement. Rakuten Advertising is investigating, while CJ Affiliate said it is issuing "reconciliation payments" to address tracking mistakes, though it did not specifically name Phia.

Independent researcher Ben Edelman, who examined Phia’s code, said the attribution problem had persisted for months. Jordan Williams, CEO of attribution-fraud prevention firm Veeper, warned that the incident could damage trust in the industry.

Phia, which launched its app in 2025 and has raised $43.5 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, has not publicly commented on the issue. Co-founder Sophia Kianni and Gates have promoted the service on social media and through their podcast "The Burnouts," but have remained silent on the attribution controversy.