Top MLM Attorney Explains why TVI Express tviexpress.com is NOT legal in US or Canada (already illegal in Georgia!)

Mr. Gerald Nehra, esq., is one of the best known pro-MLM lawyers. In fact, he specialized in laws regarding network marketing / multi-level marketing. He had actually served as head of legal division for Amway for 9 years, and has since consulted for many more. His website is mlmatty.com.

Mr. Nehra wrote a paper on what constitutes a legal MLM (in US and Canada). You should pay close attention to this paper if you are involved in TVI Express, or any MLM, for that matter. It tells you what are the BARE MINIMUM a MLM have to comply with in order to be legal.

Mr. Nehra wrote, on his website, mlmatty.com:

"...[MLM] needs to look something like this, or the MLM operation will not be allowed to continue long-term in the United States or Canada.

A.The company brings a product or service to the marketplace that:
1.is retailable
2.is being retailed, and
3.does not include a right to bring more participants to the company. A service that contains the right to bring customers to the company, like a shopping mall, can qualify, but not if it also contains the right to bring more income opportunity seekers (legally, “participants”) to the company. Multilevel income opportunities CANNOT be sold in the United States or Canada.

B.The product or service reaches the end user through efforts of direct sales representatives (independent contractors), rather than through traditional retail establishments or other channel of distribution choices like mail order or telemarketing. This channel definition is driven, not by any e-commerce techniques, but rather by the payment of money to an independent contractor for producing a result. Another characteristic of this channel is a lack of employees (involved in selling) to whom W-2s are issued and the presence of independent contractors to whom 1099s are issued.

C.The company’s compensation plan
1.is designed to reward representatives for the sales of the product or service they are involved in, and
2.includes an incentive and reward for the representative to be the “new representative finder” (legally, another “participant”) in the form of payment to a representative who introduces an additional representative to the company, BASED ON the sales volume of the second representative.

-- cited from http://mlmatty.com/09/abc.php

This is of course, not the whole article, but this is the gist: the 3 criteria of what constitutes a legal MLM. Evaluate your MLM against this, and you'll see if your MLM is legal.

With the three criteria from Mr. Nehra now clear, we can evaluate TVI Express against the same criterias.

A1: Is the product / service retail-able?

-- MAYBE, if you call selling travel a service. However, there are members that claim the 7-day 6-night is the product, not the "selling travel". service. Let's just say "probably yes".

A2: Is it being retailed already?

-- MAYBE: travel is being retailed, but subject to A1.Which product? The "selling travel" service, yes. The 7-day 6-night... not really, since you have to pay another $150 to redeem that. The answer to this is "maybe".

A3: Does NOT include right to bring more participants into company

-- NOT COMPLIANT. TVI Express REQUIRES you to recruit two more people to earn money. Says so in TVI Express FAQ.

"The first thing you need to do is sponsor two (2) people who join the TVI Express Opportunity. This will qualify you to cycle out of the boards as you progress ahead in the Compensation plan. Secondly, you need to encourage and teach those two downlines (people you sponsored) to sponsor more people and duplicate the process. Following these two simple steps will have you making money even while you sleep."
-- cited from http://www.tviexpress.com/faq.php#4

As TVI Express requires no sales, but requires recruiting to get paid, TVI Express failed criteria A.

CRITERIA A: FAIL

B: Product or service is sold/provided by independent contractors / reps to outside customers

-- NOT COMPLIANT. There is no outside customers at all. All sales are from TVI Express to member, not from member to outside.The 7-day 6-night thing is a certificate from TVI Express to member. The backoffice is a service provided by TVI Express to Member (and in fact, is just a rebranded version of Travelocity, which is FREE to use). The only thing sold by members to outside is the membership itself.

As there is no sales to outside, TVI Express fail criteria B.

CRITERIA B: FAIL

C1: compensation plan reward reps for sale of product or service

--NOT COMPLIANT -- TVI Express compensation plan rewards recruiting over sales. Out of four parts of the compensation package, ALL FOUR emphasizes recruiting, All four parts require you to fill the express board, some require you fill the express board several times, and you can only do that by recruiting. (see below)

C2: compensation plan gives incentive to upline based on downline's sales volume

-- NOT COMPLIANT -- "residual income" *may* be legal by definition, but "Board payout" and "incentives" would definitely be NOT compliant. Power Pool is probably NOT compliant as well, as it is dependent on "sales revenue" (assumed to be total, not downline), and you only qualify for it if you cycled through multiple times (i.e. presidential level). That was "partially compliants". However, as there is no outside sales (see criteria B above), the answer becomes DEFINITELY NOT COMPLIANT.

Compensation package, according to TVI Express itself, has four parts:

Board payout -- cycle through the traveler board, and you get $250 eWallet credit and $250 eVoucher (for membership). Cycle through the express board, and you get $10000 eWallet credit. However, the only way you can cycle through a board is by fill the board with recruits, either recruited by you, or by those you recruited (as per the FAQ item above). Thus, NOT LEGAL.

Residual income -- allegedly this is from sales of your downline, but as TVI Express FAQ itself states that "No. You don’t need to sell any products" (cited from http://www.tviexpress.com/faq.php#2 ) this is very likely to be zero, and the formula on how to calculate this residual income was never provided anywhere. Instead, some impossible statements like "share to infinity" were given instead. PROBABLY LEGAL, but changes to NOT LEGAL as there is no sales to outside.

Power Pool -- presidential level associates can share in a special "power pool" of a a percentage of TVI Express sales revenue. However, as stated before, there is "no sales", thus, why would there be any sales revenue to share? Furthermore, the only way you'll get to presidential level is you cycle through the express board multiple times, and that is by recruiting. QUASI-LEGAL, changes to NOT LEGAL as there is no sales to outside.

Incentives -- the yachts, luxury cars, laptops... villas... are allegedly available, if you cycle through the express board multiples... like 20-80-150 times. Again, you can only cycle through by recruiting. NOT LEGAL.

As compensation package is completely illegal, TVI Express failed Criteria C.

CRITERIA C: FAIL

Thus, according to Mr. Nehra's definition of a legal MLM, TVI Express failed all three parts. Therefore, TVI Express cannot be legal (in US or Canada), even partially.

When the most pro-MLM attorney gave a definition of MLM, and TVI Express cannot even be compliant to THAT, it is a signal that TVI Express is clearly NOT legal anywhere. 

Do your own "due diligence". Check my conclusions, and drawn your own.