A Restructured Herbalife

way to go!

Great job exposing this company which has been around for as long as I can remember! Just the beginning of the iceberg & avalanche of similar problematic companies! Keep exposing! Wishing you more success in all endeavors! Go get them!

Great job!!

Can you clarify what you mean by sales? I know some MLM companies encourage selling almost exclusively to downline members, and discourage retail (non-member) sales wherever possible. Are you restructuring Herbalife to compensate their salespeople based on retail sales or any kind of sales (including internal sales)?

When Herbalife appeared in our community, I watched as the reps who signed on lost so much weight - especially the elderly - that they began to look ill (smiling, but ill). I looked into the ingredients in many of their products, then searched the internet for clues as to what the heck they were packing in their pills, drinks, and supplements. Wow! No Herbalife for me, thanks.

The way you answered questions today at your press conference certainly leaves us to draw our own conclusions that Herbalife pushed very very hard to not be labeled a Pyramid Scheme in reaching this settlement.

The Herbalife short thesis has born no resemblance to reality on the ground since day dot. Instead it is that all these poor ill-educated Hispanics are stupid and that me, rich handsome New York hedge fund manager has come to rescue them. With this settlement the FTC has become a tool of racist hedge fund managers. You should be ashamed of yourself. John H

I tried this scheme when unemployed and desperate for income. Not only did I lose money with start up cost but I had an allergic reaction to the product and they gave me the run around when I tried to get a refund. I ended up eating the cost and throwing their products away. I want my money back like I've been requesting for years! How do I file a claim?

Great work! My only concern is the spin Herbalife has put on this and how that could affect the interpretation of the settlement. The main headline I see is FTC declares Herbalife not a Pyramid Scheme. Mislead about income, as well as the settlement over misleading income claims.

it would be nice to see Mary Kay investigated also!

My husband and I lost over100,000.00 to Herbalife. The real kicker was my husband suffered a catastrophic injury when I emailed the person who was his advisor I got no response, thought that was funny as when they want you to buy leads they are right there. It was six weeks later when he called and said he was going thru his email, they could not send a card or do anything. I hope I can get something from this. Herbalife is a scam and only a few people make any money

how do we get involved in this settlement?

You should look into Dynamaxx next, same deal.

How were they paying before? Was it not based on the sales of those below them? Most direct sales companies require reps to meet a sales threshold to earn on those below them.

I tried this product long time ago, ended having terrible stomach pains. Almost as if someone was twisting my insides. Returned the product to the person that was selling it. Warn people about the ingredients that are harmful instead of trying to pass it off as the greatest thing for weight loss.

Herbalife will pay 203 million for wrong doing and none has been arrested? I don't think this is the right message to all the con artist out there. Herbalife has no shame.

Although I did like many of their products, their marketing structure always bothered me. As disillusioned people below you drop out, so does your bottom line with them.

Let's get this straight. You found that Herbalife is essentially an illegal business and have allowed it to continue? That's like telling a murderer to not kill people in the future, pay a fine and be monitored by some dude who is going to hang around to ensure polite behavior! What a joke. Shut this business down. Btw, I think you are only accepting comments complimentary of the ftc action.

How is any "multi-level marketing" not really a pyramid? That is exactly how Herbalife & Waiora & Rexall & all of the others send money to the top. It is about time at least one of these is shaped up and stops the misleading advertisements and recruiting.

I hope the restructuring including protections for scenarios such as this: I knew of a couple who sold Herbalife for about 5 years and they proved to me that earnings are possible based on sales of products which they stocked in one room of their home. There is another warning for anyone deciding on a multi-level business opportunity and it has to do with those who recruit you, read on: The husband and wife both had day jobs and on weekends and three times per week were devoted to the Herbalife business while they were both conventionally employed. By the 5th year, they were earning an extra $3000 per month from their regular customer base, many of whom they delivered to or had come to their home and they were earning an extra $4000 or so per month from their recruits at which point, the wife of the pair and they decided she would do the Herbalife business on a more full time basis. Fast forward to 6 or so months into her doing this on a full time basis while her husband was working and the wife of the couple who recruited them offers 'a new multi-level business opportunity' this time involving a new nutritional product with greater opportunity than the one they were successful with. They signed on with the wife of the couple who recruited them and, guess what happened next? The couple 'lost' their Herbalife distributorship because Herbalife at that time forbade any distributor from having other distributorships and ALL of their recruits and business was automatically transferred to their upline. Because the upline's distributorship was in the ownership of the husband who recruited this productive couple and not the wife who recruited them to the new business opportunity (which was in her name only) the obvious benefit in terms of knowing the downline's Herbalife business would automatically flow to them resulted in a lawsuit and she had to go back to full time employment that her prior employer graciously took her back. I do not think they won the suit because the distributor agreement for Herbalife at that time clearly stated their policy on the requirement that distributors were/are only allowed to be associated with Herbalife and to be found out as signing onto and operating a distributorship with any other company selling nutritional/products similar and competitive to theirs was grounds for loss of distributorship. In closing, yes, money can be made if you can consistently sell product, but MLM businesses carry additional risks for those who do not carefully read and understand the legal document known as a distributorship agreement!

I too got caught up in this herbalife business I lost over a 100,000 with no profit all lost how can I get some compensation where do I make a claim a bit more info would be useful.

According to Herbalife Press Release dated July 15, 2016 ""The terms of the settlement in no way change our business model." But this FTC release says: "the FTC’s settlement significantly restructures Herbalife, changing – top to bottom – how it does business." These can't both be correct? So which is it?!

There are so many places where consumers need greater protection, outside of the MLM space and even within the MLM space. Going after Herbalife, which on the balance is doing a lot of good fighting the obesity epidemic, and is a best of breed MLM, at the behest of a hedge fund manager is patently ridiculous. What a travesty.

Louis - are you certain that once these changes are made to herbalife practices that the company will definitively not be a pyramid scheme and will then be a legitimate business?

I was selling Herbalife as a distributor and moved out of state and before I knew it I had a $10,000. credit card debt. how do I recoop some of that money

Money out the window. It was too good to be true. I hope they pay me back.

Fantastic news. After all the garbage I've been reading on facebook from uninformed, ignorant people regarding this whole election thing, this is the bright spot in my day. Thank you so much for your efforts and all the work you do to prevent fraud and dishonesty from completely devouring this country because with all the misguided, uneducated people out there right now we are going to go down bite, by bite. They actually believe all the lies that are being told and it is just getting too much. It is refreshing just to know you are HERE FOR ME TO KEEP ME UP TO DATE AND INFORMED ON OTHER ISSUES OF IMPORTANCE. THANK YOU AGAIN.

Is there anything I can do about a school that offers false hopes by asking you if you would like to make 40,000 a year. I told them I had make a mistake in the past, (8 years ago), and that I had a mark on my record. They said it did not matter. Now I owe 20,000 in student loans and no one will even take a second look at my resume. They signed me up knowing full well that I didn't have any clerical experience and that wouldn't be able to pass a background check. It is my hope that you all can prevent from happening to others that give there all to try and make a better life for themselves. Thanks.

I hope that many others MLM scam companies, like Worldventures the one who scammed me, will be settle to refuse money stolen and pay damages to people who believe in those false dreams !!! Good job FTC, thank you!!!

How will this be rolled out to other MLMs specifically Amway? Amway operates similar to Herbalife. IBOs are expected to buy the minimum 100pv from themselves instead of selling to others. It is virtually impossible to sell the Amway products because they are over priced and often marginal to other products in the stores. Amway's ficus is on the IBO to recruit others to buy from themselves and buy all of the motivational "system tools" go CORE, attend motivational seminars and meetings that provide no business training, sign up for a useless Communikate system, subscribe to a standing order of BS motivational cds and books. As long as Amway can brainwash the IBOs to recruit to duplicate what they do, there is no recommendation,no pushbor anything to sell their overpriced marginal products. When is the FTC going to protect the public from being scammed by ScAmway?