DSSRC Administrative Closure #230

The Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) initiated an inquiry involving a direct selling company (“Company”) regarding six earnings claims disseminated by Company salesforce members on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The claims identified by DSSRC included, but were not limited to, “earn 4 to 5 figures income,” “you decide your income,” “I paid off my entire family’s medical bills,” “I just paid off ALL of my student loans” as well as a claim of replacing income.

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

The Company immediately responded to DSSRC and was able to effectuate discontinuance of five of the social media posts within one week. The Company also informed DSSRC that the one remaining YouTube post from 2017 originated from an inactive salesforce member and that the Company sent her an email requesting that she remove the post and called her at the last phone number it had on record, with no success. The Company has also contacted YouTube to request that the post be removed. The Company provided DSSRC with a copy of the email correspondence that was sent to the inactive salesforce member.

Accordingly, based upon the Company’s good faith actions to address DSSRC’s concerns, the inquiry was administratively closed.

(Administrative Closure #230, closed on April 1, 2022)
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