| Comment Number: | 522418-09672 |
| Received: | 7/14/2006 10:29:09 PM |
| Organization: | JCA Ventures Corporation |
| Commenter: | John Armstrong |
| State: | PA |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
This proposal has some VERY significant merit, but several items are overly burdensome and too far-reaching. 1. Disclosure documents are a MUST, but should be fair and evenly applied across the board for all legitimate business opportunities. 2. Stating of a full decade of ALLEGATIONS is ludicrous. If any requirement is to exist, it should only be for SUCCESSFUL judgements against the sponsoring corporation, or national/regional/local leadership organizations. Even this is not really reasonable - WalMart has hundreds of lawsuits and legal challenges going on at any one time, and they don't need to tell each Store Manager candidate all about them before they are hired. And most ALLEGATIONS against legitemate businesses are frivolous charges brought to try to extort easy money from those who've worked hard to earn it. Also, the larger and MOST legitemate businesses would ALWAYS have the most legal action occurring, while smaller, less "honest" groups could have significantly less to report - they have not been around for ten years (usually a lot less) and no one bothers to sue them because they have no real cash to go after. So Quixtar/Amway, Market America, Primerica and other good outfits would suffer tremendous harm while schemers would shout about all of the ALLEGATIONS brought against those organizations over the years to lure prospects away. Definitely NOT in the prospects' best interests! 3. A forced waiting period does no one any good. It only serves to prevent prospects from pursuing their business activities (and hence their earning potential) in the most expeditious manner possible. A reasonable cancellation policy of 7-10 days would be much more appropriate. If prospects wish to take their time in making a decision, it should be incumbent on the recruiting business owner or company to not pressure or coerce a decison before the prospect is ready, and if such occurs, for the prospect to have some legal recourse. 4. Disclosure of finacial records is an absolute violation of a person's right to privacy in such matters. If a specific income claim is made by an individual, then that claim should certainly be substantiated (copies of checks, ledger sheets, etc.). So long as GENERAL estimates are stated and those estimates are documented in published works, that should be sufficient. In almost every case, no two businesses will be developed alike, so substantiation of all POSSIBLE income does not really apply. 5. Requiring references by FTC rule may be burdensome and in some case not feasible, especially in areas where a business or concept is fairly new. If a prospect is interested, they should attend an organization's seminar or opportunity meeting to meet and talk with other "reference" business owners. Besides, any list of references is only going to contain other business owners who are positive and favorable (let's be honest - no one would give out a list of references that would not be entirely favorable - and "coaching" would definitely be used to elicit the "right" responses from them). 6. I would suggest that any disclosure document contain wording to strongly recommend "Due Diligence" on the part of the prospect - to perhaps ask about and, if they feel it necessary, to research the above issues in order to make a fully informed decision. But many prospects are also able to overlook many of these burdensome issues and want to just get going and make things happen. And many times they are quite able to do so! But again, "Due Diligence" can and should be recommended, perhaps even including the above topics specifically. Then prospects can and should exercise such diligence as they see fit. Finally, let me say that my wife and I have been with Amway/Quixtar for over 15 years and while there are always some issues to ponder, we have been treated with nothing but honesty, fairness and all the disclosure we have ever requested or needed. Don't hurt them by helping the crooks!