Phoebe Gates’ shopping app Phia is facing fresh scrutiny over allegations that it took credit for sales it did not actually drive.
A new Bloomberg report says people familiar with the matter claim Gates and Phia co-founder Sophia Kianni knew about the practice months before the company publicly said it had discovered what it called “misattributions.”
The allegations center on a controversial digital advertising practice known as “cookie stuffing,” in which tracking cookies can be placed on a user’s browser so a company receives credit for a purchase even when its product did not generate the sale.
Phia has said features responsible for the misattributions were removed and that it is working to reverse affected transactions.
Phia is a price-comparison and e-commerce app designed to help shoppers find deals and discount codes while making online purchases.
The company uses a browser extension that can interact with the checkout process.
When a customer makes an eligible purchase through a partner retailer, Phia can earn a commission.
The controversy centers on how some of those purchases were allegedly attributed to the company.
According to Bloomberg, the browser extension was allegedly reporting Phia as the source of sales even when the shopper had not actually used Phia’s product to make the purchase.
The report says the system could place a web-tracking device known as a cookie into the checkout process.
That created the possibility of Phia receiving credit for transactions it had not driven.
The allegations became more serious after Bloomberg reported that people with knowledge of the matter said Gates and Kianni had known about the practice since December.
The report also referenced internal Slack messages concerning the issue.
That account differs sharply from what a Phia spokesperson told Bloomberg in July.
At that time, the spokesperson said the company had only become aware of the “misattributions” within the previous 24 hours.
“As soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue,” the spokesperson said at the time.
Phia has since issued another statement saying that any features causing the alleged misattributions were removed on July 7.
The company also said it is working to issue transaction reversals to brand partners affected by the practice.
In addition, Phia said it is hiring a head of compliance to help prevent a similar problem from happening again.
However, the company did not acknowledge the allegation that Gates and Kianni had known about the practice months earlier.
An alleged Slack message from a Phia data scientist dated July 7 reportedly estimated that cookie stuffing accounted for about 51% of the sales Phia was taking credit for during June.
Those allegations now put the timing of Phia’s internal knowledge under a much brighter spotlight.
Phoebe Gates is the daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and is a co-founder of Phia alongside Sophia Kianni.
Phia operates in the online shopping space, helping consumers compare prices and find potential savings while they shop.
Its business model includes earning commissions from retail partners when purchases are attributed to the platform.
That makes accurate sales attribution particularly important.
If an e-commerce platform receives commission for a transaction, the underlying tracking needs to accurately establish whether that platform actually contributed to the sale.
The allegations reported by Bloomberg concern whether Phia’s technology was properly distinguishing between purchases it generated and purchases that would have happened without its involvement.
The company says it has removed the features responsible for the alleged misattributions and is taking steps to address the issue.
The central dispute now concerns not only how the tracking worked, but also when company leadership allegedly became aware of the practice.
That distinction is at the heart of the latest reporting.
The allegations are significant because sales attribution is fundamental to the economics of affiliate marketing and e-commerce technology.
Retailers pay commissions based on the belief that a particular platform or marketing channel helped generate a purchase.
If a platform receives credit for sales it did not drive, the resulting payments can become disputed.
According to the reported internal data, the alleged cookie-stuffing practice represented a substantial portion of the sales Phia claimed during June.
The reported 51% figure comes from an alleged internal Slack message and should therefore be understood as an estimate rather than an independently established figure.
Phia says the problematic features have been removed and that it is working with brand partners on transaction reversals.
The company also plans to strengthen its compliance operation.
The controversy puts additional attention on a young technology company operating in a highly competitive online-shopping market.
For Phia, the immediate challenge is addressing the alleged attribution problems while reassuring retail partners that its tracking systems can accurately account for sales.
For Gates and Kianni, the more serious question raised by the latest reporting concerns what they allegedly knew and when.
The company has publicly described the issue as something it discovered and addressed, while the new Bloomberg reporting presents a different timeline.
Those competing accounts are likely to remain central to the controversy.
Phia says it removed features responsible for the alleged sales misattributions and is working to reverse affected transactions.
But the new allegations about when Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni allegedly knew about the practice have created a much bigger question for the young company: when did its leadership actually become aware of the problem?
