Mary Kay Cosmetics Sues Liquidator and Threatens Consultants
Sue Quietly and Carry a Big Stick
Translated from legal-speak, tortious interference means the Webers are accused of inducing current Mary Kay consultants to break their contracts with Mary Kay. Mary Kay also alleges that the Weber's thriving business selling Mary Kay products at a steep discount has deterred and will continue to deter women from signing contracts with Mary Kay.
The 71-page complaint contains a brief statement that may be of interest to any current Mary Kay consultants who are using liquidators to recoup some of the money they sank into hard-to-sell inventory: "Mary Kay requests leave of the court and an order to conduct expedited discovery so that Mary Kay can properly identify the Participating Independent Beauty Consultants, who are also potential defendants in this lawsuit, prior to the preliminary injunction hearing and for purposes of judicial economy." This is what lawyers call a"fishing expedition". Mary Kay wants to rummage around in the Touch of Pink business records to get information they can't get in any other way.
Given that tortious interference is an act that can't be committed between two parties to a contract, and that the alleged trademark infringement is by the Webers, one wonders exactly why these consultant would be defendants? Against which of the complaints? At worst, it would show that they have violated their contract with Mary Kay and the contract would be terminated. Is this meant to intimidate existing consultants who may be tempted to dump unsalable product to recoup some of their money.
I found Mary Kay's assertion that certain consultants were buying from Mary Kay at wholesale and selling to Touch of Pink at 50% of wholesale somewhere between far-fetched and ludicrous. Do they truly believe that consultants are willing to accept an immediate 50% loss?
The complaint includes multiple paragraphs claiming various "unauthorized uses" of Mary Kay's trademarks. While it is true that an consultant's contract prohibits the consultant from using any Mary Kay trademarks without authorization, no such restrictions apply to anyone else provided they follow normal trademark laws. Using a trademark in advertising to accurately describe what is being sold is one of the instances when it is not necessary to get the permission of the trademark holder. I'm not a lawyer, but the Touch of Pink website misuses Mary Kay's trademarks the way usedcars.com misuses Ford and BMW trademarks: it doesn't.
The whine about "they are buying ad words that violate our trademark" has already been decided in favor of companies who buy ad words, not the owner of the trademark. The judge in a recent case between Google and Geico said "as a matter of law it is not trademark infringement to use trademarks as keywords to trigger advertising." It is amusing to note that Mary Kay briefly bought ad words so that their ads would show up if someone searched for "Pink Truth", the blog that has Mary Kay's dirty laundry draped on its balcony.
A company that sues a liquidator for selling obsolete and surplus products and threatens to sue its own sales force must be desperate.
REFERENCES: Case 3:08-cv-00776 filed 05/07/2008 in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Dallas).
Published by Lazy Gardens
I'm a writer who loves to garden and photograph great plants. I'm also a certified desert landscaper, and like helping people get the most out of their landscape for the least effort. View profile
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14 Comments
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Sorry, my ending got cut off. Here it is.
I remain friends with many consultants even after I quit attending events. And the long-time customer orders on my website or my phone call are profitable.
Lazy Garden, you write well. And some of what you write about Mary Kay is true. Some is not. But you must have had a bad experience along the line to hate this company so completely. I am sorry for that.
Mary Kay beauty consultant for a satisfied 15 years.
Denise
Debate all day. It won't change anyone's opinion. Rather you might spend your time reading the legal consultant's agreement and checking out the company stats before joining.
Passionate rhetoric by Mary Kay consultants is to be expected when they are new. They're experiencing a dream. When they wake up, they find out about the realities of direct sales. Direct sales is hard work.
Women who have never worked in a professional sales capacity either learn quickly or fail quickly. Using some common sense in your business can take you a long way.
As a realist, I joined Mary Kay in 1995 in order to have a home business. That was after being burned by an 11-year corporate job into which I had foolishly put my heart and soul.
My 15 years in Mary Kay have been up and down. The opportunity is there but if you don't work; or if you're poor at sales, your income will reflect it.
All I know is I work for myself. I can ramp my business up or down based on the amount of money I need. And
Im a new recruit as a beauty consultant it nice to heard that they teach or make a seminar for using or demo how to use the product and make it as your business, it our dream as a woman to choose if we think it can help us to develop ourself personality and even to makes us success in that product... rightnow i am undecided if I can choose mary kay as my business but hoping like others to reach much money or wealth that mary kay may give... but I still believe if it is for God they will help first the poor not the dreamer. The dreamer always amaze in luxury but the poor always hope for a little ... Mary kay is a business and in business they did not see the missing but the longing ... To all like me think well if it is a right one for you .... if not dream again and hope again for a new one that makes you peace in life and in heart
It's really sad to see all these negative comments on here about a company that helps women and families grow in every aspect of their life. For example..... you get the oppritunity to go to the best of the best college. I mean ellite. when you get there you invest some time and you have a bad experiace with whoever for whatever reason. Does it make it a bad college and did the college ruin your life??? NO, the college is still a GREAT college but unfortinately humans will be human and those who choose to take advantage or misslead ARE WRONG. On the flip side the programs,classes and the education that the colleges provides is STILL A GREAT COLLEGE. THE MARY KAY OPPRITUNITY AND PRODUCTS ARE AWESOME!! I NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! I'm a single mom, two boys and so thankful I was blessed to see the vision of MARY KAY Cosmetics! I started with NO INVENTORY and my wonderful Director has not pushed but encouraged be to be the best that God has created me to be. MARY KAY IS FOR EVERYONE BUT
can Mary Kay stay OUT OF COURT for even a FEW months? If they're not suing someone they're getting sued. Says a LOT about how big of a fraud Mary Kay is. Mediocre products at ridiculous prices and commie pink nightmares that chase you around until you JOIN the CULT. Go to pinktruth or pinklighthouse and you'll see how they're "enriching" I mean RUINING women's lives. Apparently, after you PAY for products from Mary with YOUR money, Mary Lay can dictate WHERE, WHEN and HOW you can sell products that YOU bought... remember, they GOT their money.
I cannot WAIT for the day that i see an article saying that Mary kay has gone under! TRUE KARMA for ruining women's lives continuously!!!
It looks like another big company trying to trample on the small buisness person. So much for free enterpise. So how many times should a big corperation squeeze a profit from a product they have already sold more than once? Whats next, another big government bail out at tax payers expence for another undeserving corperation with greedy unprofesional executives that can't earn an honest dollar for an honest days work. It's so sad to see another big multi-million dollar corperation putting the screws to the small enterprise people again.
I was researching touch of pink as an alternative to keeping products that haven't sold. After reading article and comments, I WILL NOT. I'd rather take the loss and write it off on taxes. Touch of Pink exists because people want a quick fix to their out of balance inventory. I agree with Rebecca - greed has taken over. Those that truly operate their MK business the way it was intended would NOT find their shelves loaded with products they couldn't move. Touch of Pink is successful because too many are not working their MK to it's full potential and are looking for a quick fix. I dare anyone to do their MK by the book and see if they can't get products moving!!
Actually every other product sales MLM (direct sales business, whatever you want to call it) offers a 90% buy back. Banks aren't comparable -- they don't sell product that you can return.
I personally did find Mary Kay hard to sell, and I certainly didn't sit around waiting for people to come buy from me. And I am not lazy. In fact, I have had very good reviews (promotions, and pay raises) at all of the real jobs I've had in the past 15 years. But thanks for the kind remarks
I am a former Sales Director ~ I resigned last month ..... I'm actually amazed at how horrible these women are who talk so negatively about this company. I did learn alot about WHAT NOT TO DO !!! But that doesn't mean this company is BAD !! Greed has taken over (UNFORTUNATELY) and there are many Directors who want to reach the top, but there are others like myself who NEVER push people to make STAR CONSULTANT if they never actually earned it. I was always upfront when inventories were purchased as to the fact they could sell it back fo 90% of there money !!! What idiot complains about that ? Good God !!!!! No Bank or ANY other company offers such a great deal.
I can't pursue this career right now because of personal reasons, but I'm still selling and holding appointments ........... I make good money doing so. I'm a stay at home mother of 4 and now enjoy working part time ...........
The Thing is .................... nobody makes us do ANYTHING ........ if yo