Why Is Amway Paying $225 Million? What the FTC Alleges — and Why Leaving an MLM Can Feel So Hard

Why is Amway suddenly back in the headlines? On September 17, 2026, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Washington state announced a proposed settlement requiring Amway and two affiliated organizations, World Wide Group and Leadership Team Development, to pay $225 million over allegations that they used unfair and deceptive recruiting and sales practices.

The number is attention-grabbing. So is the context: the FTC says this would be the largest monetary recovery it has obtained in an action against a multilevel marketing company. But one detail matters before anything else: the FTC case is still listed as Pending, and the allegations are being resolved through a proposed order. That means this is not the same thing as a court finding every allegation proven at trial.

What does the FTC say Amway and its affiliates did?

According to the FTC, recruiters allegedly made misleading claims about the likelihood that new Independent Business Owners could recruit others, access unusually successful mentors, and make money through the opportunity. The agency also says some participants were pushed toward product purchases, events, training and other expenses in ways that could leave them losing money.

The proposed order would do more than impose a financial judgment. It would also change how the business operates. Among other things, the FTC says participants would need to resell at least 70% of the Amway products they purchase each month, and recruiters would receive less compensation when people they recruit buy products without reselling them. Approved training providers would also be barred from charging new IBOs for training or services during their first year.

Washington's attorney general says thousands of people in the state may be eligible for compensation. Nearly all of the monetary relief, according to the agencies, is intended for consumers allegedly harmed by the practices at issue.

Why this story is hitting a nerve online

The most revealing part of the reaction is not just “Amway got hit with a huge settlement.” It is the number of people telling stories about how long they stayed.

On Reddit, former participants are talking about seven years, fourteen years, repeated event and training costs, pressure from mentoring organizations and the feeling that leaving was harder than simply deciding the numbers did not work. Other commenters are more skeptical of the government's allegations or distinguish between Amway's products and the behavior of particular training organizations.

That split matters. The internet likes clean stories: scam or opportunity, victim or believer, smart or foolish. Real life is usually messier.

You can like some products and still decide the business model does not work for you. You can genuinely believe in something for years and later conclude that the evidence changed. You can have friends inside a system without owing the system your future.

The hardest part of leaving may not be the money

There is a familiar human trap here that reaches far beyond MLMs: the more we have invested, the harder it can feel to stop.

Money matters, of course. But time can feel even heavier. If you have spent five years, ten years or more building a business identity, attending meetings, making friends and telling people that this path is going to work, walking away can feel like admitting that all of those years were wasted.

That is where sunk cost becomes emotional rather than mathematical.

We do this in bad jobs, unhappy relationships, failed projects and recovery too. We tell ourselves, “I have already come this far, so I cannot stop now.” Sometimes persistence is courage. Sometimes persistence is simply fear wearing the clothes of commitment.

One of the most painful things a person can say is: I believed this was right for me, and now I think I need something different.

That sentence can feel like failure. It can also be the beginning of a more honest life.

Shame can keep people inside systems longer than hope does

People often imagine that the rational response to bad results is obvious: look at the numbers and leave. But identity rarely follows a spreadsheet that neatly.

If your friends, mentors, routines and hopes are all tied to one path, changing course can mean losing more than income. You may fear being mocked by the people who warned you. You may worry that family will say, “I told you so.” You may wonder who you are if the identity you built around being an entrepreneur no longer fits.

That is one reason shame can make people double down.

Recovery has its own version of this. Someone can know a habit is hurting them and still feel terrified of the identity change required to leave it. A person can relapse and avoid asking for help because admitting the setback feels worse than continuing to hide it. Families can keep repeating a pattern because acknowledging that the pattern is not working feels like admitting years of mistakes.

But changing direction does not erase the years that came before. It changes what you do with what those years taught you.

If that is a question you are living through, our deeper guide You Got Sober. Now What? How to Rebuild a Life After Addiction looks at what happens when an old identity no longer works but the new one is not yet clear. And How Self-Worth Can Change in Recovery explores the difference between making a bad choice and deciding that you are a bad person.

What I keep coming back to

I do not think the useful lesson here is “never trust anyone” or “quitting proves you were fooled.” Those conclusions are too easy.

The harder lesson is that adults sometimes have to revise a story they once told with confidence.

You may have recruited friends. You may have defended the opportunity. You may have spent money you wish you had kept. You may have genuinely believed you were building something important.

None of that obligates you to spend another year proving your past self right.

There is a kind of recovery in being able to say: I am allowed to use new information.

Sometimes the strongest next step is not doubling down. It is letting yourself leave without turning your entire past into a verdict on your worth.

Sources

• Federal Trade Commission, September 17, 2026
• FTC case page: Amway, FTC v.
• Washington State Attorney General, September 17, 2026

Featured image: Amway headquarters in Ada, Michigan, by WMrapids via Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0 public-domain dedication.