Did Monat just admit to operating an illegal pyramid scheme?

From Sarah Casteel:

Hi all,

 

I hope you're all doing well.

 

I'm sure at the very least Alanda and Michelle are following this, but I'm not sure who else is. The MLM Monat, a hair and skincare MLM (the one that has a voluntary compliance agreement with the Florida AG that it does not even remotely attempt to abide by), has come out with a new comp plan option called the "affiliate" program. 

 

What's the CRAZY, revolutionary new idea they're offering? Drumroll... it's a way to rank up without "building a team" - aka, a comp plan that has rank options that don't require recruitment and are solely based on sales. The irony is that these distributors bragging about how revolutionary and forward-thinking their company is, are quite literally admitting that they are only NOW offering a way to make any money or have any success in the company without recruiting and only based on sales. It's also not as comprehensive as their main comp plan, so not as many ranks or bonuses etc. 

 

Of course, it's unlikely that this program will actually get them anywhere financially. People already tried to make money by selling products and always fail because there are only so many consumers to buy the items - especially given that they're very expensive and basically everyone is convinced to sign up as a distributor or VIP already, just for the discounts. A lot of distributor stats were accidentally made available online within the past year and the numbers were glaringly obvious - they're making tens of thousands a month from their teams and literally a few hundred from sales. 

 

There are endless videos and social media posts from distributors bragging about this new thing, although it was announced by the company at their convention as a two-month temporary promotional type thing, and there is no confirmation on whether or not it will be official past that. So, unclear exactly what the corporate leaders' scheme is - are they doing it intentionally to avoid regulators by preemptively adding a plan that's not a pyramid scheme, are they doing it out of desperation to expand their reach and get more people to sign up, are they doing it to respond to the PR and possible legal nightmare that could come from everyone seeing distributors make no money from sales... who knows. Either way, it's a real hoot to watch all of these people straight-up admitting that their company has always required recruitment to succeed... aka...has always been a pyramid scheme. Check mate, people...

 

At the end of the day, this comp plan is not replacing the other comp plan even if it is made official after the temporary period. I'm sure it will account for a VERY small amount of financial benefit to the company and to anyone. They'll probably use it to try to recruit more "VIP" members (people who are unknowingly signed up for autoship and pay membership fees) to become distributors - which will still continue to benefit the majority of people who are part of the regular comp plan, and will get these VIPs to pay even more money, maybe eventually recruit them into the main comp plan, etc. 

 

While some people may see it as a positive that they're adding a financial opportunity that isn't the literal definition of a pyramid scheme like the rest of their operations, I have absolutely no doubt that there's a scheme behind it and that it's meant to shield them and/or to find alternate ways to continue growth and making money for the company. People have been discussing that they aren't doing well... a decent amount of big distributors have left and I'm sure their market is very saturated. So who knows.

 

I'll keep you guys informed if there are any updates about the potential for the program to become official or if any other companies try to copy it. And I can also send some screenshots/recordings from distributors talking about the plan if anyone would like.