Herbalife is poorer by $200 million

Herbalife have a long history with US government enforcement agencies.

The latest is a notice from the US Federal Trade Commission who report that Herbalife:

"have agreed to fully restructure their U.S. business operations and pay $200 million to compensate consumers to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the companies deceived consumers into believing they could earn substantial money selling diet, nutritional supplement, and personal care products."

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said:

"This settlement will require Herbalife to fundamentally restructure its business so that participants are rewarded for what they sell, not how many people they recruit [...] Herbalife is going to have to start operating legitimately, making only truthful claims about how much money its members are likely to make, and it will have to compensate consumers for the losses they have suffered as a result of what we charge are unfair and deceptive practices."

The evidence has been around for many years that very few people actually make any money from Herbalife. Their own income figures, the ones that regulators like the FTC have insisted they publish every year, show this clearly.

This ruling from the FTC is yet further proof that Herbalife, like many other Multi-Level Marketing schemes, are a very good way for some people to make a vast amount of money. The few at the top do very nicely but only at the expense of the many lower down the pyramid.

Yet another reason to avoid them and anything similar.

[Thanks to PatrickPretty.com for the alert.]