FTC Takes Aim At Deceptive Earnings Claims

This week, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") proposed changes to the Business Opportunity Rule, together with the possible enactment of a new Earnings Claim Rule. Due to the increasing number of individuals seeking work-from-home arrangements, deceptive potential earnings claims are becoming more problematic. Earnings claims are especially prevalent in the multi-level marketing ("MLM") and money-making opportunity arenas. As our readers are aware, MLM programs and money-making opportunities have been closely scrutinized by the FTC for quite some time. Over the years, for instance, the FTC has regularly clamped down on illegal pyramid schemes which were being marketed as MLM programs. Now, the FTC is focused on addressing an ever-increasing number of complaints from consumers who were looking for honest income, but ended up "spending thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars on multi-level marketing, business coaching and other schemes."