Team Beachbody ban affiliates from other MLM opportunities
In what appears to be an invitation for lawsuits, Team BeachBody yesterday announced that its affiliates are prohibited from participating in any other MLM opportunities.
The battle to retain affiliate focus is nothing new in MLM. Typically however, a company will only seek to intervene if its affiliates are actively raiding downlines.
Although it sometimes gets messy, there’s generally a level of trust between an MLM company and its affiliates.
Enter Team BeachBody, who’ve decided their affiliates can’t be trusted.
As per an internal communication Team BeachBody recently sent out to affiliates;
Effective today, Beachbody Coaches, at any rank, may not participate as a distributor or representative with any other network marketing business while they are enrolled as a Beachbody Coach.
For Coaches currently enrolled in any other network marketing company outside of Beachbody, we will provide until March 15, 2017 to allow those Coaches to wind down and formally terminate their position in any other network marketing business.
Following March 15, 2017, any Coach found to be operating as a distributor in another network marketing business will be subject to immediate discipline, including suspension or termination.
Did you catch that?
Even if you’ve been part of one or more MLM opportunities for years and never dreamt of mixing your Team BeachBody business, if you don’t resign the position(s) by mid-March Team BeachBody are going to terminate you.
I know that if I was in a decent position in one or more companies (including Team BeachBody), I’d probably be talking to a lawyer. Over the years we’ve seen wrongful termination lawsuits filed for far less.
Personally I think if Team BeachBody follow through on March 15th, it’s probably only a matter of time before a disgruntled affiliate takes them to task.
As per Team BeachBody’s 2016 annual Summit event, top affiliates in the company include Lindsay Matway, Christine Dwyer, Melanie Mitro, Jenelle Summers and Melissa McAllister.
At the time of publication none of these affiliates have spoken out about the announcement on their respective social media profiles.
On the flip side, with these affiliates being at the top of the Team BeachBody affiliate geneology, their input might very well have heavily influenced the new rule.
Alexa traffic statistics for the Team BeachBody website show a sharp decline over the fourth quarter of 2016.
Although the company has since turned that around, whether the decline has anything to do with the recent announcement is unclear.
Meanwhile perusal of Team BeachBody’s affiliate agreement reveals the company officially refers to affiliates as “Team Beachbody independent Coach distributors”.
Might be time for an update hey…
because everyone else always tells someone what to do with their own business. lol.
Well, if you are going to treat everyone as an employee with such restrictions then the state and federal governments should act accordingly.
They should assess Team Beachbody unemployment taxes and the company portion of SSI for every so-called independent contractor on the books retroactive to their very first day.
restraint of trade.
Deffo one for the solicitors.
One of the absolute WORSE decisions I have made in my life was to become a TBB coach. A nightmare from start to finish 7 years later.
And, yes, I did make money, but the rules, regs, big brother mentality, change of rules continuously, pressure, indoctrination, fear mongering, are not worth the stress, tension and the risk of alienating EVERYONE you know to become a coach under you.
Not sales, creating downlines. MLM in the worst way.
Glad I escaped but not before my elite, celebrity upline contacted me after years of not hearing from her to harass me about leaving.