DSSRC Administrative Closure #227

The Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) initiated an inquiry into a direct selling company (“Company”) regarding earnings claims disseminated by both the Company and its salesforce members on Facebook. The Facebook posts included claims of full-time income, unlimited income, and that the Company’s business opportunity can provide participants with the ability to make car payments, take vacations and become debt free. 

DSSRC was concerned that these posts may be reasonably interpreted as communicating that Company salesforce members would earn a substantial income through participation in the Company’s business opportunity. DSSRC was also concerned that the posts conveyed atypical earnings claims regarding the amount of income that could be generally expected by the typical salesforce member.  

The Company engaged DSSRC in dialogue to discuss DSSRC’s concerns regarding the earnings claims at issue in this inquiry. The Company also eliminated a reference to an unlimited income opportunity in a Facebook post made by the Company. The Company was also able to have a number of the Facebook posts at issue removed or significantly modified to delete the earnings claims at issue. Finally, with respect to a Facebook post by a former salesforce member of the Company, the Company contacted both the individual responsible for disseminating the post and Facebook to request that the post be removed. As a result, the post was deleted by the former salesforce member. 

Accordingly, DSSRC administratively closed the inquiry. 

(Administrative Closure #227, closed on March 29, 2022) 
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