Are Forever Living UK and their top FBO STILL making deceptive income claims?
Earlier this year, Forever Living Products decided to close its MLM business in the USA after stipulations by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prevented them from making deceptive income claims.
Given this, you would imagine that the company would ensure their employees and Forever Business Owners (FBOs) in other countries around the world avoided making deceptive income claims.
However, we’ve uncovered evidence that this is not the case. Specifically, we have found Forever Living UK themselves and their top manager distributing and training in using business presentations that contain what we believe are income claims that do not comply with the UK’s CAP Code.
What the ASA says about MLM recruitment
Before we look at what we believe are violations of the CAP Code, let’s see what the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says about recruitment ads for MLMs:
“…any earnings claims marketers make in their recruitment ads need to be representative of what the average person can earn. CAP understands that, generally, those partaking in MLM opportunities are likely to earn differing amounts, and so would advise against quoting any direct figures in ads. Claims such as “you can earn a profit” are likely to be acceptable, provided the seller can prove that the average person can make some sort of “profit”.
To summarise:
- Any earnings claims must be representative of what the average person can earn
- The CAP Code advises against quoting direct figures, as the amount people could earn varies
- If MLMs claim people can make a profit, they must be able to prove this is the case
What Forever Living’s income disclosure statement says about earnings
Now let’s check Forever Living’s income disclosure statement, on their UK website, to see what their FBOs are earning. Here’s a screenshot:
As you can read, Forever Living’s income disclosure statement shows that “89.8% of purchasers globally did not receive any meaningful compensation or earnings from Forever Living”. And don’t forget that, like the FBO who challenged her upline, they will incur business expenses, which ultimately will probably leave them at a loss.
This tallies with research published on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) website, which shows that on average 99.6% of people who join an MLM will lose money once expenses are deducted.
The FTC banned Forever Living from making “deceptive earnings claims”
Speaking of the FTC, as we already mentioned, earlier this year they issued an order to prohibit Forever Living and its operators in the USA from deceiving consumers about potential earnings.
The FTC claimed that Forever Living, including “its CEO Gregg Maughan, and its President Aidan O’Hare”, used “deceptive earnings claims to attract new participants called Forever Business Owners (FBOs), most of whom made no money or even lost money”.
They said that the company was aware of this: “Forever knew that nearly 90% of FBOs had received no income from Forever, and it had no basis for suggesting they were not trying to make money”.
As a result, Forever Living were “permanently prohibited from making income claims”, and the FTC set a number of stipulations they needed to abide by. Instead, Forever Living chose to close their US MLM arm.
According to Direct Selling News, the reason they made this decision was because maintaining their business model under these conditions would “create unmanageable regulatory exposure, including the risk that US-specific interpretations could be applied—directly or indirectly—to Forever Living’s operations on a global basis”.
What happens when we compare the CAP Code with Forever Living’s own earnings data?
Back in the UK, when we look at the Cap Code regulations MLMs need to abide by when recruiting, and Forever Living’s own figures in their income disclosure statement, we conclude that:
- The average earnings of an FBO is zero, therefore earnings claims must represent this
- They should not be quoting direct figures when suggesting potential earnings
- It is not possible for the average person to make a profit, so they cannot claim this
So do Forever Living comply with this? They appear to be careful not to make overt earnings claims on their website or public social media accounts. But what about elsewhere?
Forever Living appear to be making deceptive income claims in their business presentation
Forever Living produces a business presentation that FBOs can use to help them recruit. Unlike their website, where it appears that they are careful to comply with the Cap Code and not use figures, their business presentation says this:
As you can see, the slide says that it’s “possible” to earn up to £5,000+ a month “when you put the work in”. However, Forever Living’s income disclosure statement shows that 89.8% of purchasers do not receive any meaningful compensation or earnings.
Their data also shows that less than 1% of FBOs earned over $1,670 a month on average. So in order to earn up to £5,000 a month, we calculate that you would need to be in the top <1% of people who join Forever Living.
But what about earning £75 a month, the lowest sum quoted on this slide? According to Forever Living’s income disclosure statement, only 2.91% of FBOs earn an average of $111 a month. So it seems that 97.09% of people who sign up will not even make £75 a month.
Clearly, it doesn’t matter how much work you put in; Forever Living’s own data shows that it’s not “possible” for the vast majority of people to earn these figures.
And importantly, this official presentation, which is available online from the UK Forever Living website, was published in August 2026, four months after the FTC issued their complaint and stipulations in the US:
Forever Living seems to suggest FBOs set goals we believe are unattainable
Also available on a link from their UK website, is the current First Steps to Manager booklet, which was last modified “4 months ago” (that would be June 2026). In it they show this example of a personal goal an FBO may set:
As we’ve already covered, the problem with setting goals like ‘earning £500 a month’ and ‘leaving work to work Forever around your family’, is that these are goals only the top 1.26% appear to be able to achieve, based on Forever Living’s own data.
And if they know this, why are they suggesting that they might be goals you set for yourself?
Even one of their top UK FBOs, used as an inspirational speaker at Forever Living events, and MC at one of their Success Days, seems to earn so little from Forever that she needs to rent her home out on Airbnb and buy her clothes on Temu.
A training video from the UK’s top Forever Living FBO also contains income claims
As if this wasn’t bad enough, we recently watched a video on YouTube, recorded in March this year, in which Forever Living’s top UK manager trains FBOs in how to recruit using “the new presentation”. And in this video she doesn’t just reiterate the very claims the FTC criticised, but she even references getting around ‘compliance’.
Before we look at some of the slides from the presentation, and find out why we believe they are so problematic, we need to explain why this particular FBO is so important.
She styles herself as Europe’s No. 1 female network marketer:
And according to Forever Living, she’s their No. 1 UK FBO and a Global Leadership Team member:
Here’s what Forever Living say about their Global Leadership Team:
“This elite group of Forever Business Owners is called the Global Leadership Team. Through their guidance, support, feedback, and excellent leadership, they serve as brand ambassadors of the Forever Business.”
And on their website, Forever Living say the following:
“Forever’s Global Leadership Team hold the top positions in our marketing plan. They use their success to help others grow and find their place as Forever Business Owners.”
So this is an important and highly influential person in Forever Living; a brand ambassador who is often used to head up trainings and Success Days, and who is frequently photographed meeting the leaders of Forever Living in the UK and USA.
What the Forever Living business presentation slides show
Let’s now look at the business presentation that this top FBO is training other FBOs to use. Here’s one of the first slides. As you can see, it suggests your Forever Living income could help pay for holidays, school fees or even a new home:
Remember, though, that Forever Living’s own numbers show that 89.8% of purchasers will not receive any meaningful compensation or earnings. And if you want to earn over $111 a month you’d need to be in the top 2.91% of FBOs. That’s before business expenses are deducted, too, so in reality your profit would be much lower (if you made a profit at all).
It’s unlikely, then, that any new recruit is going to be able to pay private school fees or buy a new home with their Forever income – especially as Forever Living has been on the decline in the UK for a number of years. We also believe you are more likely to get into debt than become debt-free.
Other slides make claims about the size of income you can earn:
As we have already covered, we believe these income claims are deceptive. In order to earn £200-£400 a month you’d need to be at least in the top 2.91% of all FBOs, and less than 1% will earn £800-£2,000 a month.
How Forever Living UK’s top FBO gets around ‘compliance’
But the slides aren’t the most problematic part of the presentation for us. It’s what the UK’s top FBO says as she’s delivering it.
When discussing the slide above, she claims that it only took her 16 weeks to be heading towards the top end of the income range (£2,000 a month):
Worryingly, she makes it seem as if this kind of goal is reasonably possible:
“So, if you’re looking to make an extra £800 to £2,000 a month, this would be the area that I would focus on and this was the area that got me really really excited. Took me 16 weeks to be heading towards the top end of this income.”
She then discusses how FBOs can grow “scalable incomes” and cites the example of a lawyer who joined Forever part-time, but went on to surpass her lawyer’s income “several times over”:
“And then of course there are what I call the um scalable incomes. And the scalable incomes are those people who are very ambitious and this is built with people who understand that they can build freestanding businesses here locally in the UK and then scale around the world. And just to give you some idea, now we can’t put the hundred thousand a year on the screen, compliance.
“But what I say is, “And just to give you some idea, […] here, who was a lawyer, joined Forever part-time, but within a year of joining Forever went full-time and has surpassed her lawyer’s income several times over. That kind of talks about the top end. So, you know, you can grow an income well beyond a traditional full-time career by working with Forever and looking at the options where you can scale your income.””
In this quote from the transcript, you can see that she admits that she can’t put the £100,000 she’s claiming this ex-lawyer makes on the screen because of “compliance”. So she knows that she is not allowed to make claims like this, but seems happy to do so verbally, as long as there’s no written evidence.
And remember, this is training by the UK’s top FBO, showing other FBOs how to recruit using the presentation. She’s setting an example they will probably be happy to follow.
How this millionaire UK FBO is recruiting women in ‘shacks’ in Africa
Before we move on, we just want to clarify what this top Forever Living FBO could mean when she talks about scaling ‘around the world’:
This is a social media post made by this top FBO back in 2014, apparently celebrating an African woman with “almost nothing”, living in a “shack”. A woman who invested what little she had or was able to borrow in a business in which 89.9% of people globally will “not receive any meaningful compensation or earnings from”.
To contrast, the latest accounts from the top FBO’s business shows she has over £4.4 million in investments, and over £460,000 in the bank:
How Forever Living UK’s top FBO claims you can earn a full-time income working part-time
The UK’s top FBO also states that it is possible to grow an income “well beyond a traditional full-time career by working with Forever”. Once again, this is not supported by the company’s own data:
She goes on to coach the FBOs watching the training to tell their prospects:
“Can you see by working with me alongside this incredible company, how we can put a business in place that’s going to give you that flexibility that you’re looking for, to have more time with the kids, to work part-time, earn a full-time income, to be able to travel a bit more? All of that is possible working with me and forever. Can you see how we can achieve that?”
Yet again, Forever Living’s own data proves this is not true. For over 99% of people who join Forever Living, we don’t believe it is possible to work part-time and earn a full-time income.
How FBOs are being trained to sell a dream they haven’t achieved themselves
In the questions at the end of the training, the top UK FBO is asked: “What would you say if you haven’t replaced your income and you still have a job?” A valid question given the FBOs are being trained to sell the dream that it’s possible to work part-time in Forever and earn a full-time salary!
Her advice for them is:
“Obviously, if you haven’t achieved something that we’re showing, you don’t have to reference that bit personally yourself. So, you could say, “You know, I’m doing really well. I’ve only just started. I’m already making a few hundred pounds each month and working towards replacing my income. And I’m so lucky that every day I work with people that have… replaced incomes and much much more”. So, you maybe then would socially reference somebody else.”
The problem with this response, is that probably none of the women watching are even making “a few hundred pounds each month”. Remember that Forever Living’s own income disclosure statement says that only 10.2% of monthly purchasers earned money from the business. Of those, only 41.4% made more than $500 a year from the sales made by those they sponsored. And of those, just 30% earned more than $111 a month on average.
That means that of all the people who join, we estimate that only 1.26% could potentially earn “a few hundred pounds each month”. So even this would be a lie, if they were to tell this to potential recruits.
Forever Living continues to make what we believe are deceptive income claims in an attempt to recruit
Both the training and the presentation shared by Forever Living UK in August this year show that, despite the FTC complaint against the company in the USA, and despite the UK’s Cap Code, Forever Living and its top FBO continue to make what we believe are deceptive income claims in an attempt to recruit.
As you can see from the examples we have shared:
- The earnings claims made are not representative of what the average person can earn
- They quote direct figures
- They are not able to prove that the average person who joins will make a profit
In our opinion it is deceptive to tell people that it is “possible” to earn up to £5,000 a month with Forever Living, if they “put the work in”. It’s even deceptive to tell them “you can make an extra £200-£400 a month”. We also believe it’s deceptive to encourage FBOs to recruit others selling a dream they themselves have been unable to attain.
And it’s not the FBOs’ fault if they fail to reach the goals that are sold to them. Forever Living’s income disclosure statement shows that, just as with other MLMs we have investigated, the vast majority of people who join will not make money. In fact, when business expenses are deducted, they are more likely to make a loss.
Furthermore, should an FBO dare to do their own research and challenge their upline on these deceptive claims, as this FBO discovered very recently, rather than address the points, their upline may instead go on the attack, isolate them from their team and accuse them of ‘bullying’.
This is just one of the reasons why we have been campaigning against MLMs for over 10 years. We hope that, with greater awareness of the realities of MLMs, fewer people will fall for the lies they may be told and avoid joining.
