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Amway has about 360,000 independent distributors. During
the years in issue, an Amway distributor’s average monthly gross
income from Amway-related activities was less than $90. Amway
does not assign its distributors exclusive territories. As best
we can determine from the record, there is no contractual
relationship between an upline distributor and his or her
downline distributors. A downline distributor is not obligated
to remain in the distribution network of an upline distributor
and is not obligated to achieve any minimum sales levels.
A distributor’s performance bonus is determined by his or
her “point value” and “business volume”. Point value is a number
that corresponds to a particular tier in the Amway “performance
bonus schedule”. Business volume is a dollar amount generally
equal to 87 percent of the suggested retail price of a particular
product. Amway assigns a given point value and business volume
to each product it sells but may change these figures at any time
for any reason it chooses.3 Consequently, it is difficult to
predict a performance bonus on the basis of the present point
value and business volume of Amway products. The performance
bonus is calculated by multiplying a distributor’s monthly
business volume by a percentage that is listed in the performance
3 According to petitioners’ exhibits, the ratio of business
volume to point value ranges from 2.00 to 2.62.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011