The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will today begin its case against Lyoness, alleging it is operating a pyramid scheme.
Tony Zeaiter and Paul Maait each invested $3,000 in Lyoness to become premium members of the Australian arm of the company.
“When it launched in Australia, they said ‘You’ll have a minimum of 500 people under you, and you’ll get a percentage of whatever these people do’,” Mr Maait told the ABC.
“[They told us] ‘You don’t have to go out and sell, you don’t have to go out and recruit people. We will give you 500 people and, you know, you’ve really got it made if you get in at this time’.”
Mr Maait said both he and Mr Zeaiter were impressed with what they saw at the presentation about the company in Sydney.
“There was literally thousands upon thousands of people joining and when they told us like Woolworths were able to get six million people to join their rewards system, it was quite believable that this could actually happen,” he said.
But partnerships with major retailers such as Woolworths and Harvey Norman did not eventuate.
“They haven’t been able to deliver on the promises that they made to people like us in order