FUTURENET, FTC REACH DEAL; REGULATORS CLEAR MULTILEVEL MARKETER TO RESUME ELECTRONICS DEALER RECRUITING.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer Multilevel mul·ti·lev·el adj. Having several levels: a multilevel parking garage. Adj. 1. multilevel - of a building having more than one level marketing specialist FutureNet Inc. said Friday that it has reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that will let it return to full operations next week. For the past month, FutureNet has been partially sidelined by a restraining order restraining order: see injunction. brought against it by the FTC FTC See Federal Trade Commission (FTC). . The commission accused FutureNet of running a pyramid scheme Pyramid Scheme An illegal investment scam based on a hierarchical setup that relies on new recruits' funding as the source of money, or so-called returns, to be provided to those earlier investors/recruits above them in the pyramid. in its residential electricity division. FutureNet recruits people to serve as dealers of goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. the company represents, including WebTV, a device that provides Internet access See how to access the Internet. through a television set, and long-distance telephone service. In December, the company created FutureNet Electric Network to recruit dealers, and ultimately customers, for Pacific Advantage/Eastern Pacific Energy, an electricity supplier. Under the arrangement, FutureNet sold dealership licenses to salespeople for between $50 and $694, which allowed them to both sign up electricity customers and recruit more dealers. The recruiter would then get a percentage of revenue generated from each. But the FTC said FutureNet misrepresented the scheme's real money-making ability to potential dealers and perpetrated the fraud by supplying new dealers with similarly misleading promotional material to recruit still more dealers. The FTC complaint stated that the majority of FutureNet electricity dealers ``will not receive substantial income, and indeed most will lose money,'' according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. FTC attorney John Jacobs. Under the agreement reached this week, FutureNet will let people become dealers of its products without having to pay a fee, and will refund any fees paid by dealers if they choose to leave the company, according to FutureNet Chairman Alan Stelin. The agreement has been signed by FTC staff members and FutureNet officials and must now be approved by the federal judge overseeing the dispute, Stelin said. FutureNet shares gained 12.5 cents on the news of the settlement with the FTC Friday to close at 2-1/8. |
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