Rakuten Group

In March 2026, Rakuten released 'Rakuten AI 3.0,' promoted as Japan's most powerful domestically developed AI model. Independent technical analysis (published on GitHub and picked up by multiple Asia-tech outlets) showed the model's architecture and weights were derived from Chinese lab DeepSeek's open-source DeepSeek-V3, and that Rakuten had removed DeepSeek's MIT license attribution file from its public repository, obscuring the model's true origin. The disclosure prompted backlash in Japan, particularly given Rakuten's positioning of the model as a domestic achievement while it may have been eligible for government AI development subsidies. After the removal was discovered and criticized publicly, Rakuten restored a NOTICE file containing DeepSeek-V3's original license statement, bringing the release back into technical compliance with the MIT license, but did not fully address criticism about the initial lack of transparency regarding the model's foundation.

Starting February 13, 2025, multiple class-action lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Rakuten USA Inc. and Ebates Performance Marketing Inc. (d/b/a Rakuten Rewards), alleging that Rakuten's shopping browser extension overwrote influencers' and content creators' affiliate tracking cookies with its own, diverting commissions that should have gone to the creators who drove the sale. Plaintiffs allege the practice violates California's Unfair Competition Law and Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, and Arizona's Consumer Fraud Act; one attorney estimated damages in the tens of millions of dollars. Rakuten funds part of its consumer cashback rewards program (which it says has paid out over $4.6 billion to date) from these diverted commissions without disclosing the money's origin to consumers. Rakuten is one of several companies (alongside PayPal's Honey, Microsoft, Capital One, and Klarna) targeted in a wider wave of similar litigation following a December 2024 exposé of the practice. The allegations are contested and unresolved in litigation.