| Comment Number: | 522418-00120 |
| Received: | 5/31/2006 4:13:47 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Steve Kroeger |
| State: | TX |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Dear Sir: My wife and I are very concerned about the proposed Business Opportunity Rule R511993. It is surely well-intentioned but would end up closing down my business and that of many others. Maybe there are a few deceptive people out there who abuse the system, but most of us are hard working and follow ethical standards. The 7 day waiting period to enroll new people in a membership is a terrible hardship to a business and very inconvenient for the buyer. People can spend a lot more money on some purchases and they do not have to wait seven days. This rule would imply a terrible impression of something wrong. This proposed rule also calls for the release of any information regarding lawsuits about deceptive practices, not distinguishing between false claims or true ones but lumping them all together, and this could be used by someone to hurt a company that had done nothing wrong. Also the rule requires the disclosure of 10 or more prior purchasers nearest to the prospective purchaser. References with permission are fine, but giving out personal information on inidividuals without their approval to total strangers would be very dangerous with the scare of the misuse of that information. This would definitely NOT protect the consumer! I have been a Mannatech associate for 2 years. My customers trust me and appreciate my services to them. It would be against my ethics and also against good business sense to hurt them in any way. The desire of the FTC is to protect consumers from deceptive practices but this plan would wipe out scores of good business people along with the few bad ones. FTC could find a better alternative to this proposed rule in order to achieve its purposes. Thank you for your time, Steve Kroeger