Multibillion-Dollar Direct-Selling Industry Dodges the FTC

"Buy 1 for yourself and get the chance to sell your friends and family 5 and get your downline started!" We examine the multi-level marketing industry, where only the people who come up with the ideas make any money, and everybody else is left unhappy, broke, and tired of reading scripts and selling overpriced vitamins and similarly worthless products. Includes Global Prosperity, Pinnacle Quest International, IRS Codebusters, Stratia, and other new Global Prosperity scams.

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Lambkin
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Multibillion-Dollar Direct-Selling Industry Dodges the FTC

Post by Lambkin »

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... es-the-ftc
A new Federal Trade Commission rule is supposed to protect people who buy business opportunities by requiring sellers to provide a one-page disclosure form that includes support for earnings claims, a list of previous legal actions against the company, and its cancellation or refund policy. But the FTC rule, which went into effect last month, excludes so-called multi-level marketers (MLMs) such as Amway, Avon (AVP), and Tupperware (TUP) that the agency originally intended to regulate. That’s because of intense lobbying from the industry, whose revenues are some $28.5 billion in the U.S., according to the Direct Selling Association, the industry’s trade group.