Phias Cookie-Stuffing Scandal: Is Phoebe Gatess Startup In Legal Trouble? Coppa Italia [Q9688Yu5pYe]

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Julie Zerbo, founder of The Fashion Law and a lawyer who's covered legal issues in fashion for years, joins Amy to break down the fame mma Phia scandal. The shopping startup founded by Phoebe Gates (yes, Bill Gates' daughter) and her Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni has raised $43 million from investors like Kris Jenner, Sheryl Sandberg, Khloe Kardashian, and Alix Earle and just days ago, Bloomberg reported Phia was "cookie stuffing," or secretly opening tabs to take credit for affiliate sales it didn't actually drive.

Amy and Julie dig into what cookie stuffing is, why it looks a lot like what got PayPal-owned Honey hit with 25+ lawsuits, and whether Phia's celebrity halo and blue-chip backers (Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Notable Capital) can help it skate through unscathed.

00:00 Introduction

02:32 Phia's origin story and Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kiani's Stanford beginnings

09:16 The first scandal: Fortune's report on Phia's data collection

16:17 The second scandal: Bloomberg's cookie-stuffing investigation

19:18 What is cookie stuffing karl urban and the Honey/PayPal lawsuits

23:52 The 2008 eBay affiliate fraud case that led to prison time

27:23 Did Phia's investors do proper due diligence?

36:22 Could this be fraud? What the law requires

43:15 Does Phia's celebrity halo make it bulletproof?

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