Difference between revisions of "Controversies"

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(1990s)
(1990s)
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==1990s==
 
==1990s==
 
* Sidney Schwartz
 
* Sidney Schwartz
 +
When the public interaction with the web was in its infancy in 1996, Schwartz set up a web site  titled "Amway: The Untold Story". He did this to bring to light some of the issues that he perceived around the Amway business. These were mainly centered about tool issues. However as the aim was clearly anti Amway it degenerated into criticism anything that Schwartz disagreed with, ranging from personal religious beliefs of senior pins to non core products that are more expensive through Amway.   
 +
 +
Clearly Amway did not take kindly to having its name dragged through the mud. There was multiple legal actions against Schwartz by Amway, including three subpoenas and adding him as a defendant in a lawsuit. After this Schwartz "choose" to shut down his web site in 1999. In a clever marketing move he claimed that he as a little guy didn't have the ability to stand up to the big company with the deep pockets. 
 +
 +
Now the perception of "big and powerful company" shutting down "the little guy" created an uproar in some parts of the web community who perceived this as a suppression of free speech. Therefore before his removal of his own web site it was mirrored around the world in multiple different sites around the world. Thus effectively allowing the web site to stay active.
 +
  
 
* Proctor & Gamble
 
* Proctor & Gamble
 
Proctor and Gamble sued [[Haugen, Randy & Valorie]], and other diamonds for spreading urban myth in 1995 that P & G were involved in satanic worship, see [http://www.mlmblog.net/2007/03/randy_haugen_am.html full blog comment]. It would appear at this stage that the 12 year court battle would be over. And Randy and Haugen are no longer associated with the Amway business.
 
Proctor and Gamble sued [[Haugen, Randy & Valorie]], and other diamonds for spreading urban myth in 1995 that P & G were involved in satanic worship, see [http://www.mlmblog.net/2007/03/randy_haugen_am.html full blog comment]. It would appear at this stage that the 12 year court battle would be over. And Randy and Haugen are no longer associated with the Amway business.
 +
  
 
* Amway Korea
 
* Amway Korea

Revision as of 01:17, 8 May 2008

It is unsurprising that Amway being such a large company, ($US5 billion + sales, 60 countries) and having been in existence for nearly 50 years, that there would be some controversies.

Timeline

Current

  • TEAM vs Quixtar

Like any business there senior figures who disagree. This leads to at times senior pins quiting Amway, or Amway terminating senior pins for rules violations. The latest example of this is TEAM issue.

  • DTI vs Amway UK
  • Andra Pradesh Police vs Amway India

2000s

  • TIF vs Quixtar
  • Dateline NBC
  • Internet Critics

1990s

  • Sidney Schwartz

When the public interaction with the web was in its infancy in 1996, Schwartz set up a web site titled "Amway: The Untold Story". He did this to bring to light some of the issues that he perceived around the Amway business. These were mainly centered about tool issues. However as the aim was clearly anti Amway it degenerated into criticism anything that Schwartz disagreed with, ranging from personal religious beliefs of senior pins to non core products that are more expensive through Amway.

Clearly Amway did not take kindly to having its name dragged through the mud. There was multiple legal actions against Schwartz by Amway, including three subpoenas and adding him as a defendant in a lawsuit. After this Schwartz "choose" to shut down his web site in 1999. In a clever marketing move he claimed that he as a little guy didn't have the ability to stand up to the big company with the deep pockets.

Now the perception of "big and powerful company" shutting down "the little guy" created an uproar in some parts of the web community who perceived this as a suppression of free speech. Therefore before his removal of his own web site it was mirrored around the world in multiple different sites around the world. Thus effectively allowing the web site to stay active.


  • Proctor & Gamble

Proctor and Gamble sued Haugen, Randy & Valorie, and other diamonds for spreading urban myth in 1995 that P & G were involved in satanic worship, see full blog comment. It would appear at this stage that the 12 year court battle would be over. And Randy and Haugen are no longer associated with the Amway business.


  • Amway Korea

In 1997 Amway Korea was ordered to pay approximately US$30 000 for unlawfully criticizing Korea's detergent makers and making exaggerated claims in its newspaper ads, by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC). This charged were brought against Amway Korea by the Korea Soap & Detergent Industry Cooperative (KSDIC). The FTCfound that Amway Korea had violated fair trading regulations by making misleading claims about its dish washing liquid, called dish drops. The breach occured around the following:

That Amway had run advertising that claimed scientific experiments proved the superiority of Dish Drops to any Korean-made detergent and that a bottle of Dish Drops is equivalent to six bottles produced by local makers. The FTC stated that "Neutral experiments showed that there is little difference in quality between Amway's Dish Drops and Korean-made detergents"

The FTC also accused Amway Korea of exaggerating a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) award. The FTC stated: "Our findings showed that the award given to Amway was merely a corporate achievement award by the North American office of the UNEP, being recognized for sponsoring environmental organizations," Clearly more than this was being claimed.

The source for this article also stated "The business watchdog body also charged Amway distributors for engaging in unfair business practices, insisting that the distributors had conducted comparative tests between Dish Drops and local products, an act deceiving consumers, while educating prospective sales persons."

and "It also termed groundless distributors' claim that Amway products are more environmentally friendly than local products."

However the Korea Soap & Detergent Industry Cooperative (KSDIC) who brought this action against Amway was also fined approximately US$8 000 for for attempting to damage the image of Amway Korea in an advertising campaign

Both groups were ordered to publish a written apology in a daily newspaper.

The article also stated "With regard to Amway's allegations that its multi-level marketing system would return gains to both distributors and consumers by abolishing marketing ladders, FTC's probe showed that supply prices for distributors contained 25 percent in sponsoring allowances and 25 to 35 percent of retail prices were allocated to distributors."

Source: The Korea Herald News (11-05-97: FTC Fines Amway Korea, KSDIC for False Ads) and Korea Time (971105 PAGE:10 SECTION:CULTURE) via this web site this web site

1980s

  • Canadian Fraud Case
  • Directly Speaking

1970s

  • FTC vs Amway

1960s

?

1950's and before

  • Nutrilite

The concept of Amway grew out of problems that occurred between the distributor organization of Nutrilite and the company that produced this product.



Ongoing controversies would include the tools business. The profit, if any, in the tools. And what proportion of larger pins income does the tools business make up. This debate on this issue was kick started by a memo in the early 1980's titled Directly Speaking, above. It continues today with with the business restructure in the Amway UK & ROI market.