The Law Protecting Honest Reviews of Companies- even LuLaRoe
If you sold or sell LuLaRoe, you might have noticed a little provision in the policy and procedure manual that essentially forbids you from saying anything bad about the company- even if it's true. See below:
You're told you must honestly present the product and income opportunities- but you must also speak well of the brand itself. Contradictory in many situations, yes. You might also be aware that LuLaRoe's contract makes a very broad-sweeping claim that ALL documents from LuLaRoe to consultants are to be kept confidential. In fact, LuLaRoe is attempting to sue me for access to sources that provided their feedback, experiences and more to me for the purpose of investigating and reporting on them. Whatever the outcome of the case against me, the FTC has a law that went into action in February 2017 that just may protect those that wish to speak out about LuLaRoe if they were to be exposed. As long as the information is factual, the FTC has the Consumer Review Fairness Act to contend with. This information provided within is not legal advice, as I am not an attorney, but it might be worth looking into. If LuLaRoe has attempted to hush you, remove your feedback and reviews, threatened to sue you for sharing your experience, you MAY Have some protection under this act. The act specifically covers CUSTOMERS of a company- but are consultants not customers? Considering a consultant has to buy thousands of dollars in inventory from LuLaRoe to participate in their program, I would argue that the consultant is the customer of LuLaRoe, and the end customers are customers of the sales consultant. Since an end-consumer can not buy product from LuLaRoe directly, and ONLY from consultants, I think it's a pretty good argument. And so, observe the following portion of the act: "WHAT SPECIFIC CONDUCT IS PROHIBITED BY THE STATUTE? The Consumer Review Fairness Act makes it illegal for companies to include standardized provisions that threaten or penalize people for posting honest reviews. For example, in an online transaction, it would be illegal for a company to include a provision in its terms and conditions that prohibits or punishes negative reviews by customers. (The law doesn’t apply to employment contracts or agreements with independent contractors, however.)" Now a consultant IS an independent contractor, but also a customer- so it's a gray area and thus would need to be dissected by an attorney- but at the very least, I think it's worth a report to the FTC if you fall into the category of "threatened or penalized by LuLaRoe" for sharing a bad experience. HERE is the link to the full article on the FTC page. And HERE is a link to the full act. HERE is the link to file an online complaint with the FTC against a work at home company. And HERE is the link to report to the FTC retaliation or threats over negative feedback.