Rakuten Group—Rakuten sued in class actions alleging its cashback browser extension diverted content creators' affiliate commissions

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.