Controversies
Litigation
For several years Quixtar was involved in litigation with the tools businesses of former Crown Distributor Kenny Stewart and Double Diamond Brig Hart. In February 2008 a federal judge dismissed the case.
A class action lawsuit was filed in 2007 against Quixtar and some of its top-level distributors in California, alleging fraud, racketeering, and that the products business and the tools business are pyramid schemes. A similar case filed in California in August 2007 by TEAM affiliated IBOs whose contracts had been terminated was dismissed. On November 3, 2010, Amway announced that it had agreed to pay $56 million to settle the class action, $34 million in cash and $22 million in products, and while denying any wrongdoing or liability, acknowledged that it had made changes to its business operations as a result of the lawsuit. The settlement is subject to approval by the court, which is expected in early 2011. The total economic value of the settlement, including the changes to the business model, is $100 million.
In his online book "Merchants of Deception", former Quixtar IBO Eric Scheibeler stated that he and his family received death threats from his uplines during a business meeting and from an anonymous phone call. In 2006, a Swedish newspaper published statements attributed to Scheibeler which implied that Amway/Quixtar employees were responsible for these threats. Amway and Quixtar sued Scheibeler on February 27, 2007 for defamation. In July 2007, Scheibeler wrote a letter to an attorney for Amway and Quixtar clarifying among other things that, to his knowledge, Doug DeVos or Amway/Quixtar employees never made any death threats to him.
FTC investigations
The Federal Trade Commission offers advice for potential MLM members to help them identify those which are likely to be pyramid schemes.
In the 1979 ruling In re. Amway Corp., the Federal Trade Commission determined that Quixtar predecessor Amway was not an illegal pyramid scheme because no payments were made for recruitment. In addition, Amway (and later Quixtar) rules required distributors to sell to at least 10 retail customers per month, or have $100 in product sales, or a total of 50 PV from customer purchases in order to qualify for bonuses on downline volume. Quixtar IBOs are required to report this customer volume on Quixtar.com or they do not receive bonuses on downline volume. Furthermore, an IBO must also personally sell or use at least 70% of the products personally purchased each month. The FTC established that these rules help prevent inventory loading and other potential abuses of the marketing model.
In 1986 Amway Corp. agreed, under a consent decree filed in federal court, to pay a $100,000 civil penalty to settle Commission charges it violated a 1979 Commission order that prohibits Amway from misrepresenting the amount of profit, earnings or sales its distributors are likely to achieve. According to a complaint filed with the consent decree, Amway violated the 1979 order by advertising earnings claims without including in it clear and conspicuous disclosures of the average earnings or sales of all distributors in any recent year or the percent of distributors who actually achieved the results claimed.
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The FTC has required the information on average income to be provided to all prospective Quixtar business owners since the above 1979 FTC ruling clearing the Amway business model as legal.
Income from tools and business support materials
In 1983, Rich DeVos, one of Amway's founders, made recordings which, among other things, communicated his displeasure with several issues regarding some of the high ranking distributors/IBOs. These recordings are entitled "Directly Speaking" and were addressed to Direct Distributors (now called Platinums), who are considered leaders with various responsibilities for their downline group. In January 1983 Rich DeVos announced that Amway would pay Business Volume (BV) on Amway produced tapes. He expressed concern about the level of income from the sale of Business Support Materials (BSM; tapes, CDs, books, and business conferences/functions) compared to the income the high level distributors were making from Amway products. He stated his legal team was concerned if the tool income exceeded 10% of their Amway income, and stated that BV payouts on tapes can never exceed 20% of the distributor's total Business Volume.
A 1985 Forbes magazine article quoted Dexter Yager, an IBO, as stating that about 2/3 of his income is from BSMs.
In 2004, Dateline NBC aired a report, alleging that some high-level Quixtar IBOs make most of their money from selling motivational materials rather than Quixtar products. Quixtar published an official Quixtar Response website where it showed '"Interviews Dateline Didn't Do"'. Quixtar also states on its response site that Dateline declined their request to link to the site.
During the registration process for a new IBO, Quixtar contracts clearly inform prospective IBOs that BSM are optional and that the producers and sellers of the BSM may make profit or loss from their sale (like any other business). This is also publicized on Quixtar websites. Quixtar's Business Support Materials Arbitration Agreement (SMAA) requires the immediate seller of BSMs to buy-back materials, which were purchased only for personal consumption within a 180-day time frame, on commercially reasonable terms, upon request of the purchaser. BSMs purchased for inventory or to be sold to others downline are not covered by the buy back policy.
Disputes with TEAM
On August 9, 2007, a group of Quixtar distributors, including founders of the TEAM training organization, filed a lawsuit seeking to enjoin Quixtar from enforcing its distributor contracts, including the non-competition and non-solicitation provisions. The plaintiffs alleged that the company knowingly operates as a pyramid scheme, and prevents its distributors from leaving the organization through the aforementioned provisions.
On August 10, 2007, Quixtar announced that it had terminated the businesses of fifteen of the plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit, and sought and received a temporary restraining order and preliminary order of injunction in a Michigan court preventing them from interfering with the LOS, soliciting IBOs for their new company, or disparaging Quixtar or the business in any way. In mid October 2007, Quixtar argued that the former distributors were in violation of the court order since TEAM continued to have meetings and sell motivational materials. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Quixtar argued that TEAM was using Quixtar's proprietary information to promote its meetings and sell materials. The court held in favor of Woodward and Brady and allowed TEAM to continue to operate.
To enforce the injunction, Quixtar filed an action against 30 anonymous bloggers. Specifically, Quixtar was seeking to discover if Woodward and Brady were involved in a blogging campaign to disparage the company. The California lawsuit was dismissed on October 5, 2007.
In 2009, Woodward and his wife Laurie were found liable in an arbitration case for soliciting other distributors to resign from Quixtar and join its competitor MonaVie, The Woodwards were ordered to pay a settlement of $12,736,659. TEAM Co-defendants Chris and Terri Brady ordered to pay $9,578,756 and Tim and Amy Marks, $3,533,230.
Google bombing
In the summer of 2004, some Quixtar leaders and IBOs allegedly launched a Web initiative designed to make their web pages more prominent in search results, aka Google Bombing.
