Phoebe Gates is involved in a complicated legal scandal. The youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates is the subject of a new report that accuses her retail brand, Phia, of cookie stuffing. Here's what all of that means.
What is Phia?
© Getty Images for TechCrunchOver the past year, Phoebe and Sophia Kianni have been promoting the fashion platform Phia, which, with the help of AI, compares prices across different fashion products while applying coupons, providing users with the best possible clothing deals.
It comes in an app and a browser extension and has received support from all sorts of celebrities, with backers including Hailey Bieber and Kris Jenner.
The site was launched last year, alongside Phoebe and Sophia's podcast "The Burnouts," where they talk about being startup founders and young professionals.
Why is Phoebe suddenly all over the news?
© Getty Images for TIMEA recent Bloomberg report emerged, alleging that Phia was engaging in "cookie stuffing." This practice occurs when an app secretly drops a tracking cookie in a user's browser without the user clicking on a referral link. If they buy something later, the retailer believes the app referred them there, paying a commission it never earned. It's a practice that could be treated as federal wire fraud.
The report alleges that Phoebe and Sophia knew of the scheme for at least the past seven months, airing various Slack messages with their coworkers.
In a statement, Phia reps said they would “learn from this and want to ensure our users have the best possible shopping experience, with features like our new digital closet and more to come.”
The lawyer Ariel Givner said that cookie stuffing could be prosecuted as a serious crime. “There’s a possibility of a max penalty of up to 20 years prison + fines/restitution,” she wrote on X.
© Getty ImagesPhoebe's previous comments about her family
Phoebe and her father Bill Gates have kept quiet following the release of the report. In past years, she has opened up about the anxiety she's experienced as the daughter of one of the richest and most successful men in the world.
“I was like, I have so much privilege. I’m a nepo baby,” Phoebe said in an episode of "The Burnouts," revealing that she “had so much insecurity around that.”
Earlier this year, Phoebe was featured on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast, where she said that she wanted to find success with “no ties to my privilege or my last name.”
“I have a chip on my shoulder.”
© Getty Images for Tiffany & Co.
