Honey Gets Removed from the Rakuten Affiliate Network: What We Know & What It Means for Advertisers
In January 2026, Rakuten Advertising officially removed the PayPal-owned Honey browser extension from its affiliate network. This move is quickly rippling through the affiliate industry, with other networks beginning to follow suit in investigations. So what does this mean for the hundreds of affiliate programs in which Honey actively contributes revenue to? In this blog, we aim to provide you with as many insights as possible, and how we intend to protect our clients.
What We Know
Rakuten sent out notices on January 12, 2026, communicating that Honey had been terminated from its affiliate network and would no longer participate in campaigns run through Rakuten’s platform. As a result, the extension lost access to approximately 2,000 retail merchant programs, including big names across the U.S. and globally.
This termination came amid an ongoing controversy over how Honey’s browser extension handled affiliate tracking. Investigations and industry scrutiny revealed that Honey’s extension may have been overwriting existing affiliate tracking cookies or otherwise capturing last-click attribution, even when Honey didn’t provide a coupon or incremental value to the shopper.
Importantly, Rakuten’s decision appears tied to non-compliance with network policies related to attribution standards and appropriate “stand-down” behavior. These rules are in place in order to prevent publishers, like extensions, from hijacking affiliate credit from other publishers who legitimately drove a referral.
What This Means for the Industry
At first glance, Honey might seem like an odd headline in affiliate news: a browser extension is not a traditional affiliate publisher. But the broader industry context makes this significant:
- Affiliate networks rely on fair and transparent attribution models. Last-click and first-click attributions are sensitive to intermediaries that insert themselves into the conversion path without adding true discovery value.
- Browsers, extensions, and tools that operate between the affiliate partner and the checkout experience create complexity and potential for disputed credit.
- The Honey action, paired with similar moves by Impact.com and compliance investigations by Awin, signals a shift in how networks enforce quality standards.
For affiliate program managers and advertisers, this development is more than a headline, it’s a wake-up call about publisher diligence, network rules, and the evolving expectations around partnership integrity.
Our Take for Clients: Strategic Insights
As a boutique affiliate marketing agency who prioritizes quality over quantity, and that prides itself on building high-impact programs, we see several key takeaways from the Rakuten-Honey situation:
1. Attribution Integrity Is Paramount
Affiliate revenue should reflect genuine influence, not opportunistic last-click mechanics. Networks are increasingly willing to enforce policy and remove partners whose behavior undermines attribution fairness.
For advertisers, this means:
- Clarify which publisher behaviors align with your brand’s goals.
- Audit partners regularly. Not just for performance, but for how that performance is generated.
A partner with huge clicks and big sales numbers might still be a bad fit if they distort your attribution data or harm other impactful partners in your program.
2. Diversification Isn’t Optional
If a single partner (even a large one) can disrupt your program, that concentration carries risk. Honey’s removal is a reminder that diverse partnership portfolios protect your affiliate ecosystem.
Instead of relying on a handful of high-volume partners, build:
- a breadth of niche affiliates,
- strong brand ambassadors,
- and partnerships that add real value before purchase intent is even formed.
Smaller, engaged affiliates often drive higher quality interactions than larger tools that claim late-stage credit.
3. Policies Are Changing, and Your Strategies Should Too
Affiliate networks are crafting and enforcing more stringent compliance frameworks. This includes stand-down rules, cookie integrity checks, and behavior standards that go beyond fraud.
Working with your network and compliance tools proactively means:
- better protection for your top affiliates,
- fewer surprises when enforcement actions happen,
- and a stronger foundation for sustainable long-term growth.
“There Are No Bad Partners — Just Bad Partnerships”
This is our core philosophy, and the Rakuten-Honey case illustrates exactly why it matters:
A “bad partner” isn’t inherently malicious—sometimes they simply don’t align with the goals, standards, or ethical expectations of your program. What looks like a strong partnership on the surface can actually:
- distort your performance metrics,
- divert credit from better-aligned affiliates,
- or even make your brand look unfair to creators.
Our belief is that the responsibility lies with program architects, not the partners themselves. A great affiliate program doesn’t just collect clicks, it guides meaningful collaboration with partners whose contributions align with your brand’s values.
Honey’s removal doesn’t condemn the extension as a company, rather, it reveals that the relationship between a brand, the network, and a partner must be carefully structured, monitored, and evaluated.
In many cases, approaches that once worked (like last-click dominance) are now being reassessed industry-wide. An affiliate relationship should help grow your brand’s reach and respect the creators and publishers who deservedly earned that referral.
Conclusion: What’s Next for Advertisers?
Rakuten’s move to remove Honey is a marker for where affiliate marketing is heading:
- Fair attribution will outweigh opportunistic tactics.
- Quality over quantity will protect your brand and budget.
- Better partnerships will replace purely transactional relationships.
Affiliate marketing success isn’t just about who converts customers, it’s about how and why those conversions happen. As networks tighten their rules and compliance expectations evolve, advertisers must stay ahead of the curve by nurturing partnerships rooted in integrity, transparency, and mutual value.
If recent industry shifts have you rethinking your affiliate strategy, we’d love to help you evaluate, optimize, and future-proof your program.
We’re here to help! Reach out to start a smarter partnership conversation.
