Klarna Browser Extension Lawsuit Claims Content Creator Commissions Theft

Swedish fintech company Klarna is facing a Milberg class action lawsuit accusing its coupon browser extension of stealing money from content creators.

• The lawsuit was filed by a California content creator who claims that Klarna cheated her and others out of commission payments.
• Plaintiff Rachel Thompson alleges that the Klarna browser extension intercepts and misappropriates commissions from online personalities like herself.
• Klarna allegedly steals commissions by manipulating tracking tags and the “last-click” attribution process.
• U.S.-based content creators who had their commissions diverted to Klarna through the browser extension may be able to join the lawsuit.
• The lawsuit is the latest to accuse coupon browser extensions, including those from Capital One and PayPal, of stealing commissions from online creators.
• Milberg attorneys recently filed a similar lawsuit against Microsoft.

Klarna and the Klarna Browser Extension

Klarna is a “buy-now, pay-later” service that allows consumers to split their purchases into interest-free payments. It partners with over 250,000 retailers around the world to offer options such as “Pay in 4” or “Pay in 30 days” without interest.

The company also has a coupon browser extension that compares prices across merchants, finds and applies coupons at checkout, and gives shoppers the option to spread out their payments. Klarna’s extension is available on most major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, and has amassed millions of downloads, including more than one million on Chrome alone.

A description on the Chrome Web Store says that the “Klarna Extension automatically finds you the best coupons and points as applicable when you shop at over 20,000 stores. With just one click we test different codes and apply the best one to your cart.”

Content Creators and the Affiliate Marketing/Commission System

The U.S. content creator industry, also known as the “creator economy,” includes a wide range of online marketers and creators, such as YouTubers, bloggers, and influencers, who earn money through affiliate marketing programs.

With the rise of e-commerce and social media, and the increasing popularity of platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, many online sellers have turned to content creators to promote and market their products to consumers.

“Influencer” is now a top career aspiration for American youth, surpassing professional athlete and astronaut. One study found that 86 percent of teens aim to be online influencers.

Reviewing network traffic demonstrates that, when an online shopper activates the Klarna browser extension, it silently and invisibly removes affiliate cookies and tracking tags that would otherwise credit the rightful salesperson—the content creator—with the sale of that particular product or service.

Content creators partner with e-commerce merchants to promote their products or services in exchange for a commission on any sales that result from their referrals. To track these referrals, content creators are provided with unique affiliate marketing links that they can share with their followers.

Embedded in the links are tracking tags that allow merchants to attribute a referral to a specific creator. When a follower clicks on one of these links and makes a purchase, the content creator earns a commission

Klarna’s Alleged Commission-Skimming Scheme

Klarna says that it does not steal affiliate commissions from influencers when shoppers use coupons or points at checkout.

According to its website, “If Klarna detects that you arrived at a merchant site via an affiliated link, it does not prompt you to offer coupons and points.”

However, Milberg’s lawsuit directly challenges this assertion and claims that Klarna’s browser extension is designed to “systematically intercept and misappropriate commissions” from content creators like plaintiff and class members.

As described in the complaint, this alleged deliberate scheme involves Klarna replacing the content creator’s tracking tags with its own and receiving the commission instead of the creator. Here’s how the scheme is described in the lawsuit:

• A consumer clicks a creator’s affiliate link, which deposits a tracking cookie in their browser.
• At checkout, the Klarna extension activates, presenting coupon offers or cashback incentives.
• The extension allegedly replaces the creator’s cookie with one tied to Klarna.
• This substitution leverages “last-click attribution,” an industry standard where the entity responsible for the final click before a purchase receives the commission.

Evidence from network traffic analysis, cited in the lawsuit, purportedly shows this covert code replacement scheme that enables Klarna to wrongfully claim payments for sales it did not generate—at the expense of content creators.

“Notably, network traffic is typically invisible to ordinary website users, which explains how Klarna’s theft has—until now—gone undetected,” the complaint states.

Plaintiff and Claim for Damages

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Rachel Thompson, is a resident of Dublin, California who uses affiliate marketing links to promote products on her social media pages.

She claims Klarna’s browser extension has misappropriated her commissions on numerous occasions and that, as a result, she has lost significant income. Her lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, asserts claims for unjust enrichment, conversion, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, and violations of California consumer protection laws.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages as well as injunctive relief on behalf of Thompson and those similarly affected.

Potential Class Members – Who Can Join the Lawsuit

Anyone in the United States who participated in an affiliate commission program with a U.S. eCommerce merchant and had commissions diverted to Klarna from the Klarna browser extension may be eligible to join the lawsuit as a class member. There is also a California subclass for those who meet these criteria and are California residents.

Affiliate Marketing Commission Theft a Growing Problem

Milberg’s Klarna browser extension lawsuit is part of a wider pattern of cases that accuse e-commerce sites of siphoning marketing commissions from content creators.

Law.com reports that, since the start of 2025, other commission diversion lawsuits have been filed against coupon browser extensions that include Microsoft, Capital One and its e-commerce subsidiary Wikibuy, and PayPal and its browser extension Honey. These lawsuits suggest that online coupon tracker-swapping schemes are a recurring issue within the affiliate marketing ecosystem.

The issue is not only a serious problem for content creators, who rely on affiliate marketing commissions to generate income, but a matter of consumer protection.

Consumers may believe they are supporting their favorite creators by clicking on a sponsored link and making a purchase, but if the lawsuit allegations are true, the companies are pocketing the commissions at the expense of creators, and, in the process, are also effectively deceiving consumers.

Milberg’s Anticompetition and Consumer Protection Practices

The plaintiff and class are represented by Milberg’s Gary M. Klinger and Alexandra M. Honeycutt.

In January, Milberg class action attorneys filed a case against Microsoft that claims it steals commissions from online marketers using the Edge browser shopping extension.

Milberg is a national leader in consumer protection. Since 1965, the firm has filed thousands of class action lawsuits, recovered billions of dollars for our clients, set groundbreaking legal precedents, and pursued litigation that holds big companies accountable.