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Amway responds to New York Times article alleging China crackdown

New York Times article falsely claims Amway is facing crackdown; story misrepresents company, industry, distributors, and operations in China

Published Jan. 9, 2018

A recent New York Times article misrepresented Amway, the Direct Selling Industry and the millions of hard-working Chinese business owners who support this industry. Most seriously, the reporter wrongly interpreted a recent government crackdown on illegal pyramid schemes, falsely suggesting it was aimed at legitimate direct sellers like Amway despite being provided information clearly refuting the claims.

To be clear, Amway has not faced any questions from officials regarding our business practices in China. In fact, Amway is often cited as the model for ethical direct selling around the world and applauds the government’s efforts to crack down on illegal pyramid schemes.

Like we do in the rest of the world, we place great importance in China on helping our distributors build proper and sustainable businesses through robust training and our rules of conduct. These rules are agreed to by each distributor who has a contract to promote, represent and sell Amway products, and specifically outline appropriate actions and prohibited behavior.

With millions of independent distributors worldwide, we’re proud of the vast majority who do it right and operate successful and ethical businesses. And when we discover that someone has violated Amway’s rules of conduct, we respond expeditiously and appropriately. It’s been our mindset for nearly 60 years – all in support of making entrepreneurship accessible to anyone.

Update: On February 3, The Economist published a story on China’s crackdown on illegal pyramid schemes that more accurately details the unethical and illegal companies that the Chinese government is actually pursuing. Amway is in full support of China’s crackdown on these illegal pyramid schemes.

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Statement in reference to New York Times article, published in January of 2018.