A crucial Supreme Court ruling, FTC strategy shifts and social media challenges impact direct selling in an eventful year.
January Headlines
FTC Launches ‘Operation Income Illusion’
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with 19 federal, state, and local law enforcement partners announced a nationwide crackdown on consumer scams promising income and financial independence. Although no direct selling companies were targeted by this operation, it marked a beginning to the COVID-19-era scrutiny of work-from-home-scams, pyramid schemes and coaching courses, among other businesses.
DSA Rolls Out New Compliance Certification Program
The Direct Selling Association (DSA) began a comprehensive compliance program to be made available to member and non-member companies. The Direct Selling Compliance Professional Certification Program (DSCP-CP) was created for individuals and does not certify an entire company. The program includes four three-hour online sessions for a total of 12 hours and is designed to be taken over several days. Modules include topics such as “Claims Substantiation and Disclosures”; “Product Claims”; “Monitoring and Removal of Claims from Social Media Platforms”; “The Role of Compliance in Your Organization”; and “Conveying the Right Marketing Message.”
Camelle Kent, Thirty-One 
Dave Nash, 4Life 
Joe Miranda, Herbalife
Tupperware had its first year-over-year sales growth in a quarter since 2017, the company said in its third-quarter earnings report, but the direct selling giant continues to face uphill challenges in one of the biggest global MLM markets: China.
The channel’s biggest opportunity remains the fact that over 50 million Americans are involved in the gig economy today and are willing to step out of conventional ways to earn income with maximum freedom and flexibility leveraging current assets or skills. This overt expression of personal responsibility and mental openness to income creation is a great place to start the conversation around the possibilities of creating an opportunity in the direct selling space, leveraging some of the unique features of the space such as work from home, digital social marketing platforms, unique products, especially in the wellness space, leveraged income, global opportunity and more!
