Amway, World Wide Group and Leadership Team Development have agreed to a $225 million judgment in a stipulated final order that the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Washington filed together on September 17, 2026. The order, which still awaits a judge’s signature, would also change how independent business owners buy product: at least 70 percent of what they purchase each month would have to be sold on to others. Nearly all of the money is earmarked for people who lost money in the business.
A joint filing in the Western District of Washington
The complaint and the proposed order went to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington as a joint action by the FTC and the state, according to the agency’s September 17 press release. The Commission authorized staff to file on a 2-0 vote. The three defendants are Amway Corp., World Wide Group, L.L.C. and Leadership Team Development Inc.
The FTC’s release calls the $225 million the largest monetary recovery ever collected from a multilevel marketer in an FTC action. The release does not name a state attorney general or quote one, so the state’s role is documented only as co-plaintiff.
Where the order stands: filed, not yet entered
A stipulated order is one the defendants have agreed to, but it binds no one until the court acts. The FTC states that the order has the force of law only when approved and signed by the District Court judge. As of October 6, the release describes a filed order and does not report that it has been entered, so every requirement below is a term of the proposal, not a rule currently in effect.
The money follows the same sequence. The FTC says nearly all of the $225 million will go to independent business owners (IBOs) recruited by World Wide Group and Leadership Team Development who lost money, but it adds that information on the FTC’s redress program for this case will be provided at a later date. No claim form, deadline or payment date exists yet, and the release gives no per-person figure.
That leaves the practical question for anyone who signed up through those two organizations and spent more than they earned: there is nothing to file today, and the work is to watch for the program to be published and to keep the records that a later claim would draw on. The program has no published rules yet.
That is a different job from the Amway story itself, which is about a court order: no claims process exists yet, so the reader’s task is tracking one that has not opened. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System contains the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a claim log and payment tracker, set up for a case like this one.
Track the Amway redress program when it opens →
The 70 percent resale rule
The resale term is the part of the order that would reshape the business. In the FTC’s words, IBOs “will be required to sell to others at least 70% of the products they purchase from Amway each month.” Two features of the wording matter. The threshold is measured against what an IBO buys from Amway, and it is measured monthly, not over a year. It also says to others, which on its face separates real customers from the owner’s own household consumption.
The rule answers the core complaint in multilevel marketing cases, that participants are pushed to buy inventory to qualify or advance and end up as the main customers. By tying purchases to outside sales every month, the proposed order would make heavy self-purchasing a compliance problem for the owner and for Amway.
What the FTC alleges about earnings claims
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said that “Amway and its affiliates misled prospective workers with false earnings claims and then pressured them to buy Amway products.” The release says the defendants advertised earnings of more than $40,000 a year, made false recruitment promises, pitched an “exclusive opportunity” that was not, and told participants to misreport sales. These are the FTC’s allegations in a complaint resolved by agreement; the stipulated order is the settlement of them, and the release is the account of the agency, not a judicial finding.
For the distributors, the money logic is straightforward. A person who bought product to hit a monthly volume and could not resell it holds a loss that looks like the one the redress program is meant to address. What the release has not said is how losses will be measured, which recruiters’ downlines qualify beyond the two named organizations, or what proof will count.
Keeping a paper trail until the FTC publishes the Amway program
The free route is the FTC’s own refund programs page, which lists active programs and links to consumer alert sign-ups. Amway is not a listed program with a claims process yet, because the release says details will come later. Checking that page, and the press release itself, is the way to learn when claims open and where they are filed.
In the meantime, the useful records are the ones a loss calculation would use: order confirmations and invoices from Amway, bank or card statements showing monthly purchases, any proof of what was resold and for how much, and the names of the recruiting organization. A running total of purchases minus sales per month is easier to build now than from memory later. Any message that offers to file for payment, or asks for a fee or bank login to secure a share, falls outside what the FTC has announced.
The last fact that decides everything is the judge’s signature. Until the court approves the order, the 70 percent term and the $225 million judgment remain proposals filed on September 17, with redress information promised by the FTC at a later date.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System is a paid guide and Excel tracker that includes the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a claim log and payment tracker, plus a source vault of 12 official places money sits. It is meant to hold the dates and records for a payout that has not been announced.
Click here to get The Settlement & Refund Recovery System for the Amway case →
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
