Same Words.
Different Rules.

Congress creates the FTC and prohibits "unfair methods of competition." No mention of direct selling or MLM.

The last time Congress updated the FTC's deception standard. Section 5 is amended to add "unfair or deceptive acts or practices." Direct selling, MLM, and earnings representations are never mentioned. No congressional intent for these industries exists.

The FTC's first action against a direct-selling company. The commission begins developing its own theory of pyramid schemes — without any congressional authorization.

The FTC invents the "Koscot test" for pyramid schemes — an agency-made standard, never passed by Congress, applied exclusively to direct sellers.

Congress grants the FTC authority to write Trade Regulation Rules. Congress uses this authority for franchising (Item 19). Congress does not use this authority to write rules for direct selling or MLM. The gap is born.

The FTC invents its own safe harbor rules for direct selling — the "10-customer rule" and "70% rule." Agency-made rules applied exclusively to one industry. No other industry faces them.

Applies to testimonials across all industries — but direct sellers are the only ones regularly pursued at the individual level.

The FTC publishes a Business Guidance document based on Koscot. Still no statute. Still agency-made. Still applied only to direct sellers.

No pyramid finding is made. The FTC writes new structural rules for Herbalife as a condition of settlement — rules that apply to Herbalife only, not codified for anyone else.

Consent order includes earnings representation bans on individual distributors. The first major use of individual speech restrictions for sharing income stories.

The Supreme Court rules unanimously that the FTC had been exceeding its statutory authority for decades. Congress had never granted the equitable monetary relief the FTC had been collecting.

First full trial of the FTC's pyramid theory. The FTC loses on every single count. The agency's self-written enforcement rules cannot survive judicial scrutiny.

The agency publishes informal guidance stating that even true, above-average income results are likely deceptive in direct-selling context. No regulation. No statute. Staff opinion only. Not legally binding — but cited in enforcement actions.

Consent order imposes lifetime speech restrictions on individual distributors for sharing lifestyle imagery and income success stories. No pyramid finding. No fraud finding. Pure earnings-representation theory, applied to individuals.

The Supreme Court overrules Chevron deference. Courts will no longer defer to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes. The era of self-authorized agency lawmaking is over.

For the first time, a national grassroots movement calls on Congress to introduce and pass legislation writing the rules for direct-selling income representations. A disclosure-based safe harbor, applied equally to all industries. The 1938 gap, finally within reach.