herbalife-logoPersonally I’m bit over following the FTC Herbalife saga… at least until we get something concrete.

BehindMLM first covered a “pending law enforcement action” back in 2013, and it’s been nothing but speculation ever since.

In what may be more speculation, Herbalife are now claiming they expect the FTC to hit them with a $200 million dollar fine.

“While there are a number of open issues, these discussions have progressed to an advanced stage, and the range of outcomes now includes litigation or settlement,” Herbalife CEO and Chairman Michael Johnson said of the FTC talks as he spoke with Wall Street financial analysts during a Thursday conference call.

Apparently “injunctive and other relief” is also on the table, which could see monetary damages pushed higher. And if Herbalife are busted for being a pyramid scheme, an injunction would also prohibit them from doing it again.

Personally I wouldn’t have much confidence in that. I mean Herbalife are big and everything, and no doubt they’d be under a microscope… but let’s be honest, it’d probably take another three year investigation to find them in breach of injunction.

Meanwhile what of the damage done during that time?

What I’d rather see, or in addition to the usual injunction + fine, is stipulations that Herbalife be upfront about their actual retail sales volume.

This should be included with the Income Disclosure Statement and be an accurate reflection of retail sales volume across the company.

No more of this “affiliates who don’t recruit are retail customers” crap, just give us the numbers. And if they’re not on par with what they should be, that’s on Herbalife to continue to change until they are.

As Vemma recently found out, in this day and age anything less is unacceptable.