Madison, CONN., May 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nerium International, LLC, a Texas-based multi-level marketing (MLM) company selling anti-aging products including creams, serums, and a brain supplement pitches “financial freedom” and boasts that “Nerium changes lives.”
But is the company running a legitimate MLM business or an illegal pyramid scheme? And has the company and its distributors crossed the line when it comes to making health and income claims? A new investigation by ad watchdog truthinadvertising.org (TINA.org) reveals what you need to know about Nerium. Highlights include:
1. No stranger to trouble
TINA.org first investigated Nerium in 2016 and found that the MLM and its distributors were making illegal health and income claims to sell Nerium products and market the business opportunity. As a result, TINA.org filed a complaint with the FTC and Texas Attorney General. Now, a year later, many of the inappropriate posts listed in TINA.org’s databases remain on the internet, and TINA.org has gathered more than 200 new examples demonstrating Nerium’s continued use of these deceptive marketing claims.
2. Fake endorsements
Nerium counsels its distributors to market their business and sell their wares by using before and after pictures of people to show the dramatic effects that Nerium products can have on a person’s skin. Some distributors, however, seem to just make them up. For example, according to a lawsuit filed against Nerium and its distributors, images of actor Ray Liotta were used without permission to promote the company’s AD skin cream, a product he’s never used.
3. Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits
While Nerium has only been in business since 2011, it’s already been involved in at least 20 lawsuits with allegations ranging from product liability, defamation, and employment discrimination to trademark infringement and fraud.
4. Federal consumer complaints galore
The Federal Trade Commission has more than 100 complaints on file regarding Nerium. More than half of these complaints, which were filed between June 2012 and July 2016, had to do with consumers having trouble getting refunds and complaining of unwanted credit card charges.
5. Truly sad distributor earnings
While Nerium’s website professes that it provides its distributors with financial freedom, its outdated, hard-to-find, 2013 U.S. Income Declaration tells a different story. It appears that at least 88 percent of distributors are making little to no money on average and less than one percent of distributors earn more than $100,000.
To read more about TINA.org's investigation of Nerium see: www.truthinadvertising.org/ what-you-should-know-about-nerium
About TINA.org (truthinadvertising.org)
TINA.org is a non-profit organization that uses investigative journalism, education, and advocacy to empower consumers to protect themselves against false advertising and deceptive marketing.
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/83b893ff-8613-4b5f-ac94-d477f1b963e3