In May 2017, Market America was hit with a class action lawsuit in federal court in California by plaintiffs Chuanjie Yang and Ollie Lan. The lawsuit calls MarketAmerica a pyramid scheme that is taking advantage of Chinese American immigrants.
MarketAmerica is a multi-level marketing company that has a number or product lines including Isotonix supplements, Motives cosmetics, and others. It also uses what it calls a “product brokerage concept,” which is essentially a massive affiliate program which pays a small amount of cash back to the the distributor when purchases are made at certain retailers while on the shop.com website. (This sounds just like Shop to Earn, a defunct MLM that screamed pyramid scheme.)
Per the lawsuit, Market America requires a start-up fee of $399 and an ongoing monthly fee of $129. Distributors must also spend $100 to $300 per month on shop.com to continue to qualify as an enrollee, and other fees are incurred to attend training and events.