The FTC Is on a Roll. Here Is What It Actually Means for Us.

The FTC has been on a roll this year, just a few years after its stunning courtroom loss to Neora. Before we talk about what it means for our future, look at what has actually happened in 2026.

The FTC's 2026 enforcement roll

Forever Living (April 2026). The FTC put Forever Living under a stipulated order over deceptive earnings claims. Forever Living then dumped new U.S. recruiting from its MLM plan.

Stormy Wellington (April 2026). The same month, the FTC sued top field leader Stormy Wellington, not Total Life Changes or Farmasi themselves, over earnings claims she made while recruiting for both companies. Wellington agreed to a permanent order restricting future earnings representations, with years of compliance and recordkeeping obligations attached.

Steven and Gina Merritt (April 2026). Also in April, it sued Steven and Gina Merritt, two of LifeWave's highest-ranking distributors, without suing LifeWave itself. The FTC alleged that the Merritts told recruits they could earn as much as $25,000 a week and generate income that continued whether they worked or not. The Merritts settled without a trial or financial penalty, but agreed to restrictions on future earnings and lifestyle claims and were required to notify their downline about the FTC action.

Amare Global (June 2026). The FTC sued Amare Global Holdings, and three of its principals, Shawn Talbott, Patrick Hintze, and David Chung, alleging unsubstantiated health claims that supplements like Happy Juice and kids' products could treat depression, anxiety, and ADHD, and deceptive "brand partner" earnings pitches, including the $500-a-month kind. The complaint points to Amare's own income disclosure: a typical brand partner brought in about $25 a month. The case is pending. Allegations. Not findings. The Commission has also moved for contempt relief tied to Talbott's earlier Window Rock order.

The $225 million Amway settlement

Amway, World Wide Group and Leadership Team Development have agreed to a proposed $225 million settlement with the FTC and the State of Washington.

WWG was built by Ron and Georgia Lee Puryear of Spokane, Washington. Ron passed away several years ago. LTD was built by Bill and Peggy Britt of North Carolina.

The government alleges that prospects were told they could make $40,000 or more, while most people joining the two organizations after 2020 spent more on training and Amway products than they earned.

Amway disputes the government's characterization of its business. But under the proposed settlement, the defendants will pay $225 million and make significant changes to their practices.

The FTC describes it as the largest settlement in an FTC case against a multilevel marketing company. Whoa. That sounds ominous. Read further. You will see it is nothing more than a speeding ticket.

Put that number in context

The top 25 most penalized U.S. parent companies since 2000:

Source: Violation Tracker, Good Jobs First — cumulative U.S. penalties since 2000. Amway and Herbalife, the two most-fined direct selling companies, don't come close to cracking this top 25, or even the top 500.

So what does all of this mean? How is the FTC getting away with it? And what does it mean for our future?

They do it because they can

Congress gave the FTC authority to enforce federal competition and consumer-protection laws. That authority is not unique to direct selling. The FTC regulates advertising, business opportunities, privacy practices, financial services, health claims and dozens of other areas of commerce. Its reach extends from MyPillow to tobacco companies, banks, social-media platforms and, yes, MLM companies.

They do it because they can.

But what about free speech?

Doesn't a person have the right to tell their own story? Yes. But free speech is not a license to make false or unsubstantiated commercial claims.

There is a huge difference between saying:

The first can be a truthful personal story, assuming it includes the context — and the Income Disclosure Statement — necessary to keep it from being misleading. The second may be a lie.

And it is a version of the same lie our profession has been telling for 70 years.

We earned this reputation

We have earned our reputation as hucksters. Not all of us. Not every company. Not every field leader. But enough of us. And unfortunately, some of the biggest money earners have also been among the biggest offenders which makes them the most visible targets.

We gave up ground on two fronts.

First, we tolerated irresponsible marketing. We cheered exaggerated income claims. We rewarded lifestyle theater. We allowed leaders to suggest that exceptional results were normal results. We taught people to "paint the dream" without teaching them where inspiration ends and deception begins. Then we acted shocked when regulators noticed.

Second, we failed to build a united, adequately funded institution capable of representing this profession. For all the income we earn, all the sales we generate and all the voters connected to this channel, we are not "all for one and one for all."

We are fragmented. We are selfish. We are shortsighted. And we are cheap.

And let's put that $225 million Amway number in context

Here is what serious representation looks like

In 2025, mature industries spent real money making sure Washington understood them:

These organizations do not sit around hoping Washington will understand them. They educate lawmakers. They retain policy counsel. They conduct research. They mobilize their members. They participate in rulemaking. They challenge proposals that threaten their industries. They show up. And they keep showing up.

To be precise, lobbying expenditures and PAC fundraising are different categories. Lobbying money pays for policy advocacy. PAC money is raised and spent under federal campaign-finance rules to fund the campaigns of representatives who we believe understand our agenda and treat it with at least empathy, if not advocacy. The figures should not be presented as if they are identical. But they measure something closely related: How seriously does an industry take its own representation?

Now look at us

It's like we all want to drive bright red supercars and are begging to be pulled over. Other professions may drive red supercars too, but they wisely give our representatives rides in theirs so those representatives can appreciate the journey.

Now it has to be acknowledged that the largest direct selling companies do advocate for themselves. They do lobby. They do fund campaigns. But their agenda is their company, their brand, not necessarily our profession. One multibillion-dollar company advocates heavily for itself while aggressively insisting in its own propaganda that it is not an "MLM" like all the rest of us, but rather a customer referral plan (that pays out multiple levels of commissions), and somehow doesn't notice some of the most aggressive income claims and recruiting practices by its own leaders.

That is not advocacy for our profession, our model or our future as an opportunity. That is an agenda that perhaps says "my company should be embraced while all of my competitors are put out of business." Pretty pathetic.

The American direct-selling channel produces tens of billions of dollars in annual retail sales and involves millions of sellers and customers earning tens of billions in commissions. Yet our federal PAC raised less than a used Prius.

And then we complain that our elected officials do not understand us, or are not willing to risk blowback by advocating for us. Why would they? We don't even help them get elected.

Who is consistently educating them? Who is supplying credible industry data? Who is bringing distributors from their districts into their offices? Who is explaining the difference between a legitimate product-driven direct-selling company and a recruiting scam? Who is showing them real stories from real constituents? Who is present when the laws, regulations and enforcement priorities affecting our future are being written?

Far too often, nobody.

HE WHO COUGHS UP THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES

And look who sits at the top of America's cumulative enforcement-penalty lists: banks, oil, pharma, autos. They get hit with billions. And they still show up in Washington with real money. We get hit, and we show up with pocket change.

There are over 500 MLM companies based in the United States doing well over $34 billion a year in sales. That equates to about 20 billion in commissions to the sales forces, which number in the tens of millions, all being voters. Yet DSA membership is still only 48 companies. 48.

Ask the question this week. Is your company a member of the DSA? If you don't know, find out. If it isn't, ask your company why, ask them when, and hold them accountable.

Is MLM doomed?

No.

Will every company abandon network marketing and become an affiliate program? No. Will you personally be fined $10 million because you made one careless social-media post? Probably not.

We are going to be just fine.

Our profession has been sued, fined, shut down, investigated, criticized and bombarded with negative press for more than 50 years. And we keep persevering.

It is not illegal to sell a product you love. It is not illegal to recruit someone to help you sell it. It is not illegal to recruit a lot of people to help you sell it. And it is not illegal for a manufacturer to pay you based on legitimate sales generated by you and your entire sales organization.

These facts create the foundation of the network-marketing opportunity.

But "legal" does not mean "anything goes." We could make our future far easier if we would finally wise up.

We could wise up politically

We band together, recognizing that a rising tide lifts all ships. We can still compete, and we don't have to climb our mountains by throwing others under the bus. We could make a full-court press to educate and inspire all direct selling companies to join the Direct Selling Association. If we even had half of the active companies, 250 is five times the wallop of 48. That is five times the lobbying, educating, monitoring and advocacy staff. We have a new CEO in Dave Grimaldi. He has the vision. He has the experience. He has the courage. He definitely has the energy. He just needs us.

And we could channel a very small percentage of our profits, both as sales leaders and companies, into educating and supporting the campaigns of representatives who are willing to come to our events, join our incentive trips, learn our heartfelt true stories and advocate for us. I am not suggesting it is practical, just possible. What if just one-tenth of one percent of those $20 billion in commissions went toward electing representatives who advocated for our profession? That is $20 million a year. That gets us a first-class seat at the table.

We like to quote the Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules." Well, right now, we are arriving in Washington with $17,615 and wondering why nobody hands us the microphone.

We could wise up about our claims

We could also stop making the FTC's job so easy. We could meet, and exceed, the FTC's standards by teaching our sales forces how to tell truthful, compelling and compliant stories. It is not difficult. It is simply easier to promise the moon.

Every new distributor should be required to complete video-based compliance training and pass a test before receiving commissions.

You cannot legally drive a car without studying the rules and passing a test. Depending on the jurisdiction and activity, hunting, fishing and boating may also require safety education or licensing. You cannot sell insurance, securities or real estate without extensive education, testing and regulatory supervision. Texas, for example, requires 180 classroom hours before someone can qualify for a real-estate sales-agent license. California requires three college-level courses and a licensing examination.

And passing the test does not guarantee success. According to research from the Consumer Federation of America, approximately 49% of real-estate agents in the sample studied sold zero or only one home during the year studied.

Think about that. Months of education. Licensing examinations. Thousands of dollars in expenses. And nearly half sold zero or one home.

Yet in network marketing, we often allow someone to enroll today, start making health and income claims tomorrow and broadcast those claims to the entire world before lunch. That is insane.

Every distributor should be required to learn how to market the company's products truthfully and powerfully. Every distributor should be required to learn how to discuss the income opportunity without deception. Every distributor should be tested. And every distributor should have to pass that test again every year.

We could tell better stories

Lastly, imagine if our profession built a library of compliant success stories. Real stories. Where does the person live? What was their occupation? Why do they love the products? Why did they join? How long did it take them to build? How many hours did they work? What did they spend? What did they earn? What setbacks did they overcome?

Imagine a library containing one million truthful, compliant stories, searchable by occupation, city, state and congressional district. One million stories from real people. One million constituents. One million demonstrations that our profession is not a compensation-plan diagram. It is human beings building businesses, serving customers and changing their circumstances.

We could tell those stories to our teams. We could tell them to the media. We could tell them to lawmakers. We could build belief, not through exaggeration, but through evidence.

Our choice is simple

The FTC is not going away. Critics are not going away. Regulation is not going away. We can hope and wait for a sympathetic administration and see-saw back and forth every four to eight years.

We can keep promising the moon, spending pennies on representation and complaining every time the government acts.

Or we can grow up. We can train our people. We can police our own bad actors. We can fund serious advocacy. We can show up. We can wise up.

Because if we ever become truly united, properly trained and professionally represented, we will not merely survive. We will thrive. Franchising was right where we are 50-plus years ago. Actually, far worse. It was on the brink of extinction as a model. Today that model produces almost a trillion dollars a year in the US. Direct selling? About 5% of that.

United we stand. Divided we fall. Let's GO!

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Before you close this tab, do three things.

Read the penalty comparison and see where Amway really sits.

Find out if your company is a DSA member, and if it isn't, ask them why.

Then share this with one leader who needs to read it. That is how the message travels.

P.S. My blogs are, for me, a conversation. I rant for a bit and then … if so inspired, you respond. Your comments close the loop of conversation. They let me know I was heard. They let me know I contributed something … or not. I encourage you to close the loop … or open a new one and say something.

Thank you