Young Living

src: www.youngliving.com

Young Living is a Lehi, Utah based multi-level marketing company that sells essential oils and other related products. The company was founded in 1993 by Donald Gary Young.

Video Young Living

Company

As a multi-level marketing company, Young Living recruits "thousands of independent distributors who can sell directly to customers and earn commissions on sales to distributors recruited into a hierarchical network called 'downlines'." According to public records from 2016, approximately 94% of Young Living's active members made less than a dollar that year.

Litigation

In August 2013, Young Living filed suit against doTerra for theft of trade secrets, alleging that the company had recreated their production process illegally. Chemist Robert Pappas, who has spoken at the conventions of doTerra, has said the oils, which were tested by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, did not apparently match any oils sold by doTerra. Additionally, Pappas has given a court deposition saying that Young Living utilized synthetic chemicals in some of their organic products.

In September 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Young Living against marketing its products as possible treatments or cures for Ebola virus, and other conditions, including "Parkinson's disease, autism, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, insomnia, heart disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dementia, and multiple sclerosis, that are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners." The letter named specific essential oil products, "such as, but not limited to, "Thieves," "Cinnamon Bark," "Oregano," "ImmuPower," "Rosemary," "Myrtle," "Sandalwood," "Eucalyptus Blue," "Peppermint," "Ylang Ylang," "Frankincense," and "Orange," are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)], because they are intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease." The warning further stated that the marketing and distribution of these essential oil products as drugs without FDA approval are violations of the Act.

In September 2017 on a ruling against Young Living, the US Department of Justice announced a fine of $760,000 and guilty plea on federal misdemeanor charges for the illegal trafficking of rosewood oil and spikenard oil in violation of the Lacey Act of 1900 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.