FTC Comment Crafter

Posted on by michcarp427@gmail.com

Do you want to help the FTC to make better rules against deceptive earning claims by MLMs? You can do that easily. By describing your experience, you can help the FTC understand the problem. The more people share their experiences, the clearer it gets that action by the FTC is needed.

Below you see several questions. By answering them, you share your experience with MLMs. When finished, simply click ‘next’ for a copy of your comment to submit on the Federal Register’s website (direct link).

It is best to answer the below questions in complete sentences. The writing prompts below are not from the FTC or any government agency and they will not be included in your final comment unless you purposely include them.

Step 1 of 2
How have you been contacted, via social media, or personally? Have you joined? Or any family member/friends/former schoolmates etc.? Which company? When and for how long?
The FTC is interested in deceptive earning claims. So, please tell them whether the distributor who contacted you made income promises and what you were told personally or online or what you read on social media. Describe here, for example, promises such as a side income, a full income, becoming rich in 2 years, being able to stay at home with your children, adding substantially to your pension, etc.
A big problem in MLMs are so-called lifestyle claims/promises, for example, representatives showing their nice houses, claiming that they live mortgage-free, showing their jewelry, posting about nice holidays, having time for their (grand)children, etc. Did the distributor who contacted you make lifestyle promises like this? What were they? Were there any upline members who did that? If yes, what did they promise, and did this match with your own experience?
The FTC is interested in how much people earn. To earn money, distributors first need to invest money. Often, people invest (far) more than they ever earn back. And many have no clear idea how much it costs to be an MLM distributor. Describe for the FTC your experience. What were you told about the business costs? Did you get any concrete information? And did this turn out, i.e. did you or your friend/family member etc. invest this amount of money (or less or more)? Did you invest more than you thought at the beginning? And what were the costs for, products, business clothes, travel expenses etc. Let the FTC know.
Whoever successfully sells products to end customers/non-members, can earn money. The FTC is interested in this. What is your experience with selling? Did the distributor who contacted you, say it is easy to sell the products to others? And did you or anyone actually sell products? How did it feel to try to sell products to others? If you did not sell but buy products, how did this feel?
To sum up, you could tell the FTC whether the reasons why you, your family member/friend/schoolmate etc. started, were fulfilled: did participating in an MLM turn out as you expected? How did participating in an MLM affect you and others, your family, your friends, etc? What kind of promises were made and what did not turn out.
If you want, add ideas here on how the Federal Trade Commission should protect consumers better from false earnings and lifestyle claims. What would have helped you/your friend, family member, schoolmate, etc.?