Federal Trade Commission
By: Peter Marinello
Because the industry made the bold decision to commit to third-party self-regulation when it did, DSSRC was able to socialize its goals and objectives with direct selling companies and familiarize the industry with the program’s jurisdictional purview and process of review before the coronavirus hit.
The direct selling industry worked diligently and cooperatively to establish and implement an industry self-regulation program that celebrates its third year this month. The BBB National Programs’ Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) administers that program, helping direct selling companies across the industry abide by the high standards first established by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) Code of Ethics.
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Major changes in compensation plans, digital approach in the new normal
By: Teresa Craighead
We’ve heard over and over all the ways in which 2020 was denounced as terrible, catastrophic, and unbearable. But from the perspective of many companies in the channel, those words don’t really apply. Strange, unpredictable, and unprecedented may be more apt, and for many companies, bountiful, outrageous, and exciting are better descriptors.
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New year begins with lots of good news for the channel
Economic turmoil, political chaos, a frightening global pandemic, an overdue social justice movement and more #metoo revelations, murder hornets and wild fires, masks, social distancing, remote work, online school and isolation.
Though many uncertainties remain for 2021, to be sure, most of us are just glad 2020 is over. There’s something satisfying about packaging up the past in a neat little 12-month box and putting it away to focus on the year ahead.
Companies embrace shift in structure, comp plans to meet market demands
By: David Rauf
“Direct selling is no different than any other form of distribution of goods today. All consumer sectors of business have been evolving dramatically over the last 5 years, and most of it is driven by technology. We looked at this as a good time to enter the market.”
—Robert D’Loren, CEO, Xcel Brands
One of the core tenets of this new world is accessibility.
—Terrence Moorehead, CEO, Nature’s Sunshine
The direct selling channel has been pressed and pressured by a variety of factors over the past two to three years—largely unrelated to each other but all significant in bringing change to the channel.
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Regulators warn enforcement is a ‘top priority’ at a recent industry conference
By: David Rauf
“I caution you to stay on the straight and narrow because now, more than ever, this is a top enforcement priority for me, and I hope, the agency.”
—Noah Phillips, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
A commissioner with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voiced a tough message for the direct selling community at a recent online event, saying the regulatory agency will remain aggressive in its approach to policing the channel.
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Lack of variability, faulty assumptions cited as ‘fundamental logical errors’
By: Teresa Craighead
“What they are doing in this paper is trying to put forward a logical argument to set up a premise, to analyze it and to draw conclusions. The problem is that they commit some really basic logical errors, and you don’t have to be a logician to understand them.”
—Dr. Anne Coughlan, professor of marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
On October 13-15, 2020, the Direct Selling Association (DSA) held a virtual Legal and Regulatory Seminar that included a session discussing the Andrew Stivers, Douglas Smith, and Ginger Jin paper, “The Alchemy of a Pyramid” with three experts: Dr. Anne Coughlan, the Polk Bros. Chair in Retailing and professor of marketing at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; Dr. Patrick Brockett, the Gus Wortham Memorial Chair in Risk Management and Insurance at McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin; and Dr. Linda Ferrell, Marketing Department Chair and professor of marketing at Harbert College of Business, Auburn University. Comments in this article are taken from that discussion.
In the July 2020 issue of Social Selling News, we published an article, titled “FTC Reveals True Goals in Research Paper” (page 24), in which we discussed some of the conclusions reached in a paper published by SSRN, an international social sciences research journal.
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Courts may be signaling concern over the regulator’s authority to obtain injunctions and freeze assets in enforcement cases
By Spencer Reese, founder and partner at Reese Poyfair Richards LLC
The FTC uses the media to their advantage by issuing a press release that it has shut down a “purported” pyramid scheme, knowing that such a press release will effectively kill the company by scaring its distributors away.
The bottom line for direct sellers is that if the FTC loses its §13(b) authority, it loses its punch. Legitimate direct selling companies do not fear squaring off against the FTC so long as they are not blind-sided.
In 2014, a court-appointed receiver under the direction of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) arrived at the corporate headquarters of Vemma with police in tow. Within a few days they had for all intents and purposes forced the company out of business. The company was given very little advance warning, and no time to mount any sort of sufficient defense.
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