One of the differences between some network marketing companies and pyramid schemes is the presence of customers who don’t participate in the income opportunity. For many network marketing companies, however, there are very few retail customers who aren’t also independent representatives. In the Omnitrition, Trek Alliance, and Equinox cases, courts found problems with the payment …
Party plan companies have always generated a large percentage of their sales from purchases by retail customers. Retail customers, by definition, are non-participants in the income opportunity. Network marketing companies, on the other hand, traditionally have sold their products mostly to distributors. In fact, some network marketing companies don’t have even have retail customer prices. …