UK Court Validates Amway Reforms

LONDON, May. 14 /PRNewswire/ --

LONDON, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- A British court has dismissed all government claims against Amway (UK) Ltd., ending a lengthy dispute with a solid validation of the company's reformed business model.

The ruling by Mr. Justice Norris of the High Court declared that the company could continue doing business under a series of reforms volunteered by the company over the past year.

The judge did express his belief that Amway allowed "misrepresentations" of its business by Independent sales organizations in years past, and failed to act decisively against those misrepresentations.

However, he then noted that he was satisfied that the "radical changes" introduced by the company in the past year remedied earlier faults. The reformed Amway business model, he wrote, is "fully formulated, comprehensive, open and transparent and capable of effective and ongoing implementation without supervision."

The company said in response: "We are gratified the judge understood our commitment to reform and protecting consumers.

"We are also gratified that the direct selling business model received validation from the court -- as courts and regulators around the world have done for nearly 50 years.

"Even so, we take seriously his view of our earlier business model. We will work tirelessly to make certain we do not find ourselves in this position again.

"We are proud of the more than 100 UK-based Amway employees and more than 10,000 distributors there who have stood by us during this difficult time. We look forward to getting back to work, helping distributors earn additional income through the sale of quality products."

About Alticor

Alticor (www.alticor.com) is the parent company of Amway Corp., Quixtar Inc., Access Business Group LLC, and Alticor Corporate Enterprises. Headquartered in Ada, Michigan, USA, Alticor and its affiliates offer products, business opportunities, and product development, manufacturing and logistics services in more than 80 countries and territories worldwide. In its most recent fiscal year, the company reported worldwide sales of $7.1 billion. For further information, please contact Alticor's media information line at 616.787.7565 or e-mail Alticor's media relations staff at mediainfo@alticor.com.