COF Reaches Settlement With Influencers Over Affiliate Marketing Clash

Capital One COF has settled a lawsuit by social media creators who claimed that the bank’s free browser extension deprived them of commissions on sales generated through their content.

Capital One and creators collectively filed a settlement notice in the Alexandria, VA, federal court, with preliminary approval expected by Nov. 17. This was first reported by Reuters.
 
The company refused to admit any wrongdoing in the settlement over its browser extension, Capital One Shopping, and stated that consumers would not see any changes. It noted that the extension adheres to industry standards and remains aligned with its advertising partners.

Details of the Lawsuit Against Capital One

The lawsuit concerns affiliate marketing, a system in which creators promote content on their platforms and social media channels in exchange for commission-based earnings from online retailers and third-party marketers.

According to creators, the Capital One Shopping browser extension, which has more than 10 million users, is used to discover discounts. It erroneously reflected Capital One as the source of referral traffic at checkout, making it appear as if consumers had clicked the bank’s referral links before making purchases.

The creators alleged that this enabled Capital One to collect millions of dollars in commissions that rightfully belonged to bloggers, influencers, YouTubers and other content creators.

In June 2025, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga ruled that influencers presented a plausible case that Capital One’s browser extension redirected their commissions by overriding tracking codes. Claims of unjust enrichment, contract interference and violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act were pursued, while a conversion claim and four state-level claims were dismissed.

Capital One has faced several regulatory challenges of late. Earlier this month, it sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over a $474.1 million special assessment to refill the Deposit Insurance Fund after the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. In May, it agreed to pay $425 million to settle nationwide claims that it misled online savings account customers to avoid interest payments.

Capital One’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank

In the past six months, COF shares have risen 26.2% compared with the industry’s growth of 49.8%.

Currently, Capital One carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Regulatory Probes Faced by Other Banks

Last month, Deutsche Bank AG DB was fined HK$23.8 million ($3.05 million) by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for multiple regulatory breaches, including fee overcharging, misclassification of product risk and failure to disclose investment banking relationships in research reports.

The disciplinary action stems from investigations triggered by Deutsche Bank’s self-reports submitted between December 2020 and December 2023. The SFC found that between November 2015 and November 2023, the bank overcharged clients approximately $39 million in management and custodian fees. These overcharges resulted from failure to apply discounted fee rates and misstatements in fund valuations.

Similarly, JPMorgan JPM agreed to pay $330 million to settle ongoing and potential claims associated with the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

The settlement was announced as Swiss regulators, in a separate action, found JPMorgan guilty and imposed a fine for its failure to prevent money laundering in transactions associated with 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

The $330 million payout will contribute to Malaysia’s Assets Recovery Trust Account and comes “without admission of liability” from the bank. As part of the settlement, JPMorgan and Malaysia will withdraw all pending appeals connected with the lawsuit.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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