“Never take advice from anyone in a tie. They’ll bankrupt you. It’s very difficult to argue with salaried people that the simple can be important and the important can be simple.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the Incerto. Lawyers in our industry have a knack for making the simple complicated, repeating the same tired […]
This post is Part 1 of a two-part series on Nerium’s push-back against the FTC’s pervasive (and shifting) authority over how it defines pyramid schemes. In an unprecedented move the likes of which has never before been seen in the history of the network marketing industry, the FTC and Nerium filed competing lawsuits against one […]
The Direct Selling – Self Regulatory Council (DSSRC) is a good first step towards meaningful self regulation. Without question, the industry needs additional oversight. The FTC got heavily involved during the Herbalife / Vemma years, much to the chagrin of industry insiders. The results were messy, imprecise, and predictable. It was predictable because absent meaningful […]
As reported in Social Selling News, the Direct Selling Association is preparing to launch a third-party (independent) entity that’s responsible for policing the network marketing channel. Taken from the DSA chairman’s speech, Joe Mariano said, “With a new mission, the yet-to-be-named entity will serve as an independent compliance enforcement group and will respond to compliance […]
In its current form, HR 3409 is better than nothing. The current draft codifies case law where it can. The “True North” of critics has landed them in a swamp. The current draft of HR 3409 could be improved to protect more consumers. Summary of the Bill HR 3409, named the Anti-Pyramid Promotional Scheme Act […]
Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, gave a powerful speech at the DSA’s Business and Policy Conference in Washington on October 25th. While some in attendance were expecting a non-substantive speech, the kind one would expect from a high-ranking government official, Ramirez was anything but boring. She gracefully navigated some very controversial terrain […]
