Ben Edelman
- Website
- benedelman.org · all feeds from this site
- Feed URL
https://www.benedelman.org/feed/
Read it in your FeedListing reader
Or add to: Feedly Inoreader Raw feed
Latest posts
-
Actually, I am a Fan of Affiliate Marketing!
I’ve had a busy year uncovering affiliate misconduct—Honey hiding stand-down violations from testers; Phia forcing clicks; ShopMy telling merchants to cancel others’ commissions; Wildfire Kudos forcing clicks. And actually I’ve been catching these kinds of problems since 2004.…
-
Catching and Deterring Cashback Hijacking
Rogue affiliates want to claim payment from merchants’ affiliate programs, but the worst offenders are long-since ejected from direct relationships and even from subaffiliate networks. Facing these headwinds, many rogue affiliates increasingly resort to a technique I call…
-
Forced Clicks from Wildfire’s Kudos Extension
Kudos, a shopping extension powered by Wildfire, in its current version invites users to “auto-activate Boost”—at which point any click, even Dismiss, invokes an affiliate link. This is a bad deal for merchants, who pay commissions for things users would have bought anyway. Plus…
-
Reactivation Violations by Wildfire Shopping Extensions
Wildfire makes a variety of white-label cashback browser extensions. Some of their extensions—including at least Acorns, KashKick, and Super.com — open messages inviting user to “reactivate” cashback after another affiliate has claimed credit, even though affiliate network rules…
-
KLM Failed to Issue Ticket, Won’t Pay Resulting Costs
Today I filed a DOT complaint as to a passenger who booked award travel on KLM’s site, and was told (both on the web site in a confirmation email) that his booking “is confirmed.” As expected, KLM took the points from his account, and the required taxes and fees from his credit…
-
ShopMy Claims Credit for Sales It Didn’t Drive—and Tells Merchants to Cancel Other Affiliates’ Commissions
Creator-commerce platform ShopMy de facto runs an affiliate network, joining a variety of incumbents who have operated in this space for literally decades. Merchants considering running two or more affiliate programs face an obvious risk of double-paying or, if they try to…
-
More Phia Affiliate Misconduct: On-Exit Clicks and Cookie Refreshes
Under affiliate marketing contracts, an affiliate link may only be invoked in specific circumstances. (Rakuten: only when “the user knowingly tak[es] an action”; Awin: “if the user voluntarily and intentionally interacted with the Ad Media or Tracking link.”) I wrote last month…
-
Forced Clicks and Stand-Down Violations by Shopping Plugin Phia
I’ve recently been looking at multiple forms of misconduct by Phia, a fast-growing shopping plugin. I’m troubled by what I found, and even more troubled by Phia’s misleading public statements about these practices. Based on my hands-on testing, code review, and other…
-
Google Android Tying Confirmed Unlawful — But What Penalty for False Statements?
In 2014, I was the first to reveal previously-unknown Google contracts that required Android phone manufacturers and carriers to preload key Google apps, make them prominent, and in some instances not install competing apps. In 2018, the European Commission ruled this unlawful…
-
Air France Cancelling Passenger Tickets Without Basis
Four groups of passengers have contacted me to report that Air France KLM has cancelled their ticketed and confirmed travel — despite AF KLM receiving payment (in points or money) and sending emails saying tickets were valid. In one instance the cancellation occurred after…