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Root Wellness adopted the uncommon stance of denying responsibility after being informed about medical claims made by affiliates and published on its website.
Fortunately, MLM regulation doesn’t operate that way. Then DSSRC The MLM sector is attempting to self-regulate through this.
In essence, it’s a partnership between the Better Business Bureau and the Direct Selling Association. The DSSRC has no regulatory authority, but it does issue “rulings” that, according to its claims, are sent to US regulators if they are not followed.
The DSRCC recommended that Root Wellness take action when medical claims are placed on its website in September of last year. Fatty liver, psoriasis, ADHD, chronic fatigue, autism, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, fibromyalgia, nail fungus, dementia, and unidentified “autoimmune symptoms” were four of the medical conditions mentioned in the “reviews” portion of the Root Wellness website.
In response, Root Wellness said “they were not responsible for the posts.” US regulators frequently pursue MLM businesses for making false health claims. It’s a strange stance to take when it comes to products distributed on social media. Even more so, given that Root Wellness consented to remove the claims.
This month, the DSSRC conducted a normal compliance investigation and discovered, “among other concerns,” that Root Wellness had not only failed to remove the original four claims but had also added 29 more.
The DSSRC looked at new health-related claims that were similar to those made in the 2021 investigation in order to identify these ones, including claims that Root Wellness’ products can treat a number of serious medical conditions, including shingles, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, certain cancers, gout, fibromyalgia, arthritis, and more. The review portion of Root Wellness’ website appears to have been disabled in response to the second contact from the DSRCC.
Although Root Wellness has asserted once more that the 29 new posts and the social media posts from the 2021 inquiry have been or will be deleted, they have not offered any proof of their attempts to have the salesforce members who made the claims remove them from circulation, such as copies of correspondence asking them to do so. Unsupported medical claims are prohibited by the FTC Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which are overseen by the FTC and FDA, respectively, and are thus not allowed on Root Wellness’ website or on social media.
According to the DSRCC, the appropriate government agency will be contacted if Root Wellness fails to withdraw the claims from circulation or show proof of a sincere effort to do so within a reasonable amount of time. Root Wellness’ other goals may be the reason why the company is taking its time with regulatory compliance.
In recent months, Root Wellness employed G3 Development to spread useless SEO content throughout press release websites:
Adam Paul Green is the owner of G3 Development. His marketing techniques have included SEO spam ever since his MXI Corp. days off. The spam effort by G3 Development also targets Root Wellness’ own social media accounts.
Following a May 30th investigation detailing suspected fraud by creator Clayton Thomas, BusinessForHome has also come under fire. The DSSRC’s regulatory compliance reports and a lawsuit brought by Christina Rahm Cook against Rain International are also under focus.
It’s unclear if the DSA is aware that Root Wellness is employing its emblem in a campaign to stop spam. Clayton Thomas has worked alongside Christina Rahm Cook for a long time.
She plays a significant role in Root Wellness’ marketing initiatives. The legal action that Root Wellness is attempting to put to rest was started in 2021 by Rain International.
Cook and Thomas are both listed as defendants. According to Rain International, Cook met with Ryan Fry (“Fry”), who was then a vice president of Rain, in September 2016 and agreed to serve as a consultant for a skin-care product Rain was creating.
In September 2016, Rain and Cook signed a contract stating as much. During the contract talks, Cook claimed to have a PhD in a scientific field and to have “deep scientific knowledge and job Cook also gave Rain several papers, including a résumé outlining her qualifications and accomplishments.
Rain claims that in choosing to work with Cook, it used this information and didn’t find out the representations were untrue for many years. Additional agreements were made between Rain and Cook in February 2017, November 2017, and December 2019. Rain claims that Cook lied about her credentials and that she did not possess a PhD, a strong background in science, or any other relevant qualifications.
Rain claims that Cook’s false statements have hurt the company’s reputation and consumer loyalty. Rain additionally claims that Cook obtained highly private and competitive product information from Rain and utilized it to create “items competitive with Rain” rather than carry out her obligations under the agreement.
Rain claims that Cook set up Predicted Health and International Seed to assist in the creation and promotion of the rival goods. The non-compete and non-solicitation provisions in the agreements from February 2017, November 2017, and December 2019 were all broken by this. Rain brings this action and claims five causes of action, four against Cook and one against all defendants, as a result of Cook’s alleged misconduct:
(1) breach of contract and violation of honesty and fairness principles
(2) false representation that was intended to deceive,
(3) careless representation,
(4) conspiracy (against all defendants), and
(5) unjust enrichment (in the alternative). Rain International’s case was turned down by Cook’s request to have it dismissed. She subsequently filed a suit against the business in September 2021.
Cook’s counterclaim is still pending, as is Rain International’s complaint. Both cases have been entered on BehindMLM’s calendar.
Going forward, hopefully, Root Wellness will place more emphasis on regulatory compliance than on information repression.
