OpTree

Quixtar North America has filed a multi-count Complaint against MonaVie (Mona Vie, Inc. and MonaVie LLC), and several MonaVie distributors for unfair competition in federal court in Salt Lake City. The Complaint alleges that MonaVie competes unfairly by making false claims about its products. Utah-based MonaVie sells juice blend products featuring acai berries through a network of distributors. Quixtar, a sister company to Amway Corporation, sells nutritional products through its Independent Business Owners (IBOs) that directly compete with MonaVie. Some of Quixtar’s products also contain acai berries.

There are a number of companies out there today which are using acai berries as the foundation for their products but I am not sure that means they are creating “unfair competition” by doing so.

Quixtar’s filing is intended to protect consumers from false health claims as well as ensure its IBOs are not damaged from unfair competition stemming from false claims. The question is, are the distributors making the claims or is MonaVie? If you go to the MonaVie website and look at the FAQ’s, I think you will hard pressed to find anything that could be construed as even a claim.

The Complaint contains numerous examples of false health claims made by MonaVie and its distributors. For example, the Complaint includes transcripts of MonaVie meetings with speeches by “doctors” who falsely claim that MonaVie can cure cancer, stop aging at a rapid pace, improve vision, and eliminate pain. The “doctors” describe “dosages” of MonaVie to falsely imply that it is a medicine.
There is also an ongoing claim that MonaVie distributors have attempted to raid Quixtar IBO organizations using these false claims.

MonaVie’s founder Dallin Larsen is no stranger to a bit of publicity but also has a pretty good reputation of building a company.  He was pretty high up at USANA and helped lead the company to over $120M in revenue and was also on the Board of the Direct Selling Association.   

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