Áine Cain 09/28/2021, 4:28 pm
According to Vote Smart, the governor of Utah will receive over $ 10,000 ($ 13,725) from doTerra International in 2020. Chad Hurst / Getty Images for the Sundance Film Festival and Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz
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Utah Governor Spencer Cox thanked multi-level marketing company doTerra on Twitter.
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doTerra has offered to give 1 million wipes to schools in Utah to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
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The company received a reprimand from the FTC for promoting its products as a COVID-19 cure.
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Utah Governor Spencer Cox used Twitter to thank doTerra, a controversial direct selling company, for donating its products to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools. doTerra is a multilevel marketing company selling essential oil based products.
In the 2020 election cycle, doTerra International donated $ 10,200 (AU $ 13,999) to Cox, according to non-partisan research firm Vote Smart.
– Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox (@GovCox) September 27, 2021
doTerra has described its On Guard wipes as containing ingredients like “eucalyptus, wild orange, clove, cinnamon and rosemary oils” along with 70% ethyl alcohol. In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission ordered doTerra to stop advertising its oils as COVID-19 remedies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generally recommend frequent hand washing and “touching mucous membranes with hands that are contaminated by exhaled respiratory fluids that contain viruses or touching inanimate surfaces contaminated with viruses” as an infectious exposure COVID-19 on.
The governor’s office and doTerra did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Prior to becoming governor in 2021, Cox was the state lieutenant governor for Gary Herbert from 2013. In 2016 Herbert presented himself at the World Trade Association of Utah, where doTerra was named International Company of the Year.
Cox’s tweet underscores Utah’s strong association with MLMs. In 2016, local broadcaster KUTV reported that the state has the highest number of MLMs per capita. Utah-based MLMs include Nu Skin Enterprises, Young Living, USANA Health Sciences, Morinda, Inc., and Younique.
In the world of MLMs, doTerra has been a source of controversy since its inception. The direct sales company was founded in 2008. Founders David Stirling, David Hill and Emily Wright previously served as executives at essential oil giant Young Living. Young Living sued doTerra on allegations of corporate espionage. In 2018, a judge ruled that Young Living acted in “bad faith” and sentenced attorney fees of $ 1.8 million (AU2) million to its competitor, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
But the fight against Young Living doesn’t capture the full legal history of doTerra. Insider identified 27 bankruptcy cases in which doTerra was named as a party. These cases occurred between 2008 and 2020 and affected individual doTerra sellers who filed for bankruptcy. Financial hardship or total ruin are common results for MLM sellers: A 2018 survey by the AARP Foundation found that 73% of respondents who participated in MLM programs either lost money or made no money. Of the quarter of those who made money, 53% made less than $ 5,000 ($ 6,862).
doTerra is also a defendant in an ongoing civil case against a Minnesota saleswoman named Ruth Van Horn who alleged the company’s green tea extracts caused her liver failure.
The company’s philanthropic efforts were also scrutinized. In 2018, the Pacific Standard reported that the company’s foundation was accused of pocketing donations for the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
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