The USA Today “LuLaRoe was little more than a scam, a Washington State lawsuit claims” article was of specific interest to me. I was very familiar with LuLaRoe and had previously watched the LuLaRich Amazon documentary and Refinery29’s “Inside LulaRoe: Why Women Left The MLM” documentary on YouTube. Understanding all that went into the fall of LuLaRoe is a wild ride that is even more complex from an ethical perspective. The Amazon documentary is very insightful, but the Refinery29 documentary gives a more raw first-hand account of the situation. Roberta Blevins, a former LuLaRoe saleswoman, is featured in both documentaries. She has gone on to use social media to continue to share her story and experience in LuLaRoe while also warning people that multi-level marketing companies are not always what they seem. She is transparent about her experiences and has been a voice for other victims of LuLaRoe. 

Being reminded of the LuLaRoe case and the documentaries I had watched inspired me to continue my research about multi-level marketing companies in the mini-analysis. The structures of multi-level marketing companies are complex. When you try to understand all of the active ethical dilemmas you see that unethical business practices are carried throughout all levels of multi-level marketing companies. There is an extremely fine line between legal multi-level marketing businesses and illegal pyramid schemes. LuLaRoe was one of the once-legal multi-level marketing companies that failed to stay on the right side of the fine line and ultimately paid the price. Multi-level marketing companies are dangerous and predatory, and the complexity of the ethical dilemmas makes navigating them even harder.