Forever Living ordered to stop earnings claims after 77% of its distributors made nothing
The FTC sued multilevel marketing company Forever Living Products International LLC, its CEO Gregg Maughan and President Aidan O'Hare, alleging they used deceptive earnings claims to recruit "Forever Business Owners" (FBOs) into selling aloe-vera-based health and wellness products — when the company's own data showed the large majority of participants earned little or nothing. An April 2026 stipulated order permanently prohibits the defendants from making unsubstantiated earnings claims to future recruits.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- MLM pyramid schemes
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-17
The facts, as recorded
- The FTC's complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Arizona, names Forever Living Products International LLC, Forever Living.com LLC, CEO Gregg Maughan and President Aidan O'Hare.
- Participants, branded "Forever Business Owners" (FBOs), were told they could earn substantial income selling Forever Living's health and wellness products in person or online, and by recruiting new FBOs who would do the same.
- The FTC's complaint states that at least 77% of FBOs received zero compensation in a given year.
- At least 89% of new participants failed to recoup their startup cost of $300 or more within two years of joining.
- Fewer than 7% of FBOs earned any income at all from the sales of people they recruited into their downline.
- Marketing materials reportedly featured luxury cars, oversized cheques and claims of replacing full-time income; President Aidan O'Hare was quoted in company materials: "We will be paying millions in bonuses next year. The only question is, whose name goes on that check?"
- Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: "Forever Living misled workers with promises of substantial income that, in reality, bore little to no resemblance to what participants actually earned."
- The 14 April 2026 stipulated final order permanently bars the defendants from making unsubstantiated earnings claims, misrepresenting income potential or the likelihood of recruiting success, and requires a documented, reasonable basis for any future earnings claim.
Why this case matters
Forever Living is not a fly-by-night operator — it is a long-established, internationally distributed aloe-vera and wellness products company, which is exactly why the FTC’s own numbers matter here: this is not a story about an obviously fake product, it is a story about a real one sold through a compensation structure that, on the company’s own figures, paid almost nobody for selling it.
The numbers, read together
Three statistics from the FTC’s complaint describe the same shape from different angles: 77% of FBOs earned nothing in a year; 89% of new recruits never even got back the $300-plus they put in within two years; and fewer than 7% earned anything from the people below them in the structure. Recruiting more people does not fix this arithmetic — it is the arithmetic.
What the order actually requires
Unlike a case that simply bans an operator from an industry, this stipulated order leaves Forever Living operating and leaves the defendants in the business — it requires them to stop making unsubstantiated earnings claims and to have a documented, reasonable basis before making one in future. That is a narrower remedy than an industry ban, and it is worth understanding why: multilevel marketing of a genuine product is not itself illegal, so the order targets the specific conduct — the deceptive claim — rather than the business model.
The caveat
This matter was resolved through a stipulated order, agreed by the defendants without an admission of the FTC’s allegations and without a trial finding of liability. It is a civil consumer-protection matter; none of the named defendants has been charged with or convicted of a crime in connection with it.
Sources
- FTC Order to Prohibit Forever Living and its Operators from Deceiving Consumers about Potential Earnings. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-17. Supports: The defendant names, the FBO structure, the 77%/89%/7% earnings statistics, the O'Hare quote, the Mufarrige quote, the court and date, and the terms of the stipulated order.