| Comment Number: | 522418-10194 |
| Received: | 7/15/2006 10:15:56 PM |
| Organization: | Center for Unhindered Living |
| Commenter: | Judie Rall |
| State: | OK |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
As a network marketer, as I understand this proposed rule, I would be required to provide prospective members with a list of any lawsuits filed against the company. This information is already in the public domain and anyone can find it out if they want to. I recently wanted to find out if a particular physician in my community had ever had charges filed against him, and I was able to call the court clerk in the county he practices in and simply ask if there were ever any charges filed against him. They told me the dates of the complaints and the nature of the complaints over the phone. So, if someone really is interested in this issue, they just have to call the county that the company resides in and they can find out the information. Since any person can already find out this information if they want to, I see no reason why I should be required to provide it to them. You are imposing a standard on this industry which is not imposed in any other industry. If this standard were applied to other industries, then every time you to go to the doctor, dentist, auto mechanic, or anyone who provides a service, or anytime you eat a a restaurant, they should have to provide you with a list of their lawsuits before you eat their food or get treatment or other services. Do you know any restaurant that would still be in business if they had to disclose all their health department violations or lawsuits at the door to every customer who walked in? They would have no business. And yet there are websites out there which an individual can look up restaurants and what their health inspection status is. So a person who wants to find out can look it up. But I don't think ANY business ought to have to provide that information at the door to their clients. The lawsuit might have been frivolous, or unfounded. But those suits would still have to be listed. If we pass a law like this, it should apply to EVERY business and not just network marketing. If everybody who went to eat at a restaurant had to be handed a list of lawsuits and told they had to look at it for a week and then come back and eat, they'd go home and never come back. People want to eat when they are hungry, and it's the same in network marketing. If a person likes our opportunitiy, they want to join when they are excited about it, and they should have the right to do that.