Jorge N. and Vivian Lopez - Page 3

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               Amway is widely known as a marketer and supplier of various            
          personal and household products.  Amway relies on distributors              
          to purchase such products for personal consumption and for                  
          resale to customers and downline distributors.3  In general, a              
          distributor’s gross income is based on profit from retail sales,            
          plus a “performance bonus” that is controlled by Amway and is               
          influenced by the type and quantity of products the distributor             
          purchases from Amway.                                                       
               Profit from retail sales is determined by the difference               
          between the wholesale price, which is set by Amway, and the                 
          retail price, which is set by the distributor.  On average,                 
          Amway’s suggested retail price for each product is approximately            
          25 percent above wholesale, but distributors are entitled to sell           
          a product at whatever price they choose, even if a sale at that             
          price produces a loss.  Petitioners’ practice was to sell                   
          products to their customers and downline distributors at cost,              
          thereby eliminating product sales as a source of profit.                    
               A distributor’s performance bonus is determined by his or              
          her “point value” and “business volume”.  Point value is a                  
          unitless number that corresponds to a particular tier in the                
          Amway “performance bonus schedule”.  Business volume is a dollar            
          amount generally equivalent to 87 percent of the suggested retail           


               3 A customer purchases Amway products for personal                     
          consumption, but a distributor purchases Amway products intending           
          to resell them to customers or other distributors.                          




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Last modified: May 25, 2011