Thousands of Women Say LuLaRoe’s Legging Empire Is a Scam

A pyramid scheme...sorry..."Multi-level marketing" company is accused of scammy practices? Color me shocked!

There are whole blogs, podcasts, message boards, etc that are all about showing how multi-level marketing is just a flimsy set of guidelines to be able to legally dodge being busted for pyramid scheming.

The article makes it pretty clear that LuLaRoe went above and beyond even the normal MLM scuzziness:

> [A]t the national level the job of spotting [pyramid schemes] falls to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. It primarily does this by checking to see if a company abides by a standard established in the wake of a 1972 lawsuit against a now defunct beauty products company called Koscot. The Koscot standard, as it’s known, says that while a company can compensate people for recruiting new sellers, it can’t base that compensation on how much inventory the recruits buy. Most state laws, including California’s, also require compensation plans to be based on sales.

It’s a simple rule. The DSA requires it of all its members. LuLaRoe didn’t follow it for the first four years of its existence, instead basing its bonuses on wholesale orders. For a while it apparently neglected to track what types of clothing actually sold.

"In March 2016 she paid $9,000 to become a LuLaRoe consultant."

Uh, your first clue is that you don't usually PAY companies for the privilege of becoming an employee.

so how does it work on HN? should I just remake a new account so I can post sexist things like this or do I actually have to sit around and wait for my vouches?

I'm not defending multilevel marketing pyramid schemes but if you are signing up for one, you are not an employee. You do pay to run certain types of companies (franchises). But if the franchise isn't supporting you then you are being scammed.