FINALLY! It’s Over! Young Living has been proven to have been trying to use the legal system as a marketing ploy to hurt doTERRA. Done! Whew! Now onto building even bigger.
Done! Whew! Now onto building doTERRA worldwide. (doTERRA already has twice the US Sales volume of its closest MLM competitor, Amway.)
Now onto building doTERRA even faster, worldwide. (At $2 Billion, doTERRA already has twice the US Sales volume of its closest MLM competitor, Amway.)
Click to View Official Press Release
PRESS RELEASE: SALT LAKE CITY—June 22, 2017
SALT LAKE CITY—June 22, 2017—doTERRA is pleased to report that after five years of defending baseless allegations by Young Living, all charges against doTERRA and its defendants have been dismissed. Not surprisingly, a jury of our peers found no merit in Young Living’s allegations and rejected every single one of Young Living’s claims for damages. Young Living’s abuse of our judicial system in an effort to slander doTERRA is finally over.
“We are pleased and grateful that the official court record now reflects the true genesis story of doTERRA—one of integrity, rectitude and hope,” said Dave Stirling, founding executive, chairman and CEO of doTERRA. “We are vindicated and look forward to moving past this baseless lawsuit and continuing our mission of sharing the purest essential oils with the world. We hope that Young Living will now move forward with its own business challenges and stop wasting resources on frivolous matters.”
When Young Living first filed this lawsuit in 2012 (nearly five years after the events allegedly occurred), it was quickly made apparent that the object was not legal justice, but rather a sinister and desperate marketing campaign to try to halt doTERRA’s remarkable ascension. Its campaign failed as doTERRA became the largest and most recognized leader in essential oils years ago. In 2012, Young Living widely distributed a video of Gary Young heralding the filing of this lawsuit accusing doTERRA and doTERRA leaders of a veritable cornucopia of improper actions. Young Living put a link on its homepage to http://younglivinglegal.com—a site that made all sorts of now refuted allegations. Young Living pushed propaganda about this lawsuit through every means imaginable. Young Living even hired an “expert” who astoundingly quantified the estimated damages at $350,008,747. Young Living continued its disinformation campaign until the court began throwing out claim after claim because Young Living did not have any facts to back up its allegations. All of sudden the Gary Young video was removed and the prominent link to http://younglivinglegal.com was taken down.
Background: The Young Living trial against doTERRA commenced on May 22, 2017 in the Fourth Judicial Court in Provo, Utah, with Judge Christine Johnson presiding. Long before the trial even began, all claims against doTERRA had already been thrown out. All of the claims against many other named defendants also had been dismissed. Only four individual defendants remained: David Stirling, Emily Wright, Justin Harrison and Lil Shepherd. At issue in the trial were 13 total allegations that David, Emily, Justin and Lil breached their respective non-solicitation clauses (these clauses prevented them from soliciting any Young Living employees or distributors to join another company within a specified period time—six months for David and Emily and one year for Justin and Lil—after leaving Young Living).
Public court records now confirm that in 2007, David, Emily, Justin and Lil were all employed by Young Living, but they were becoming increasingly dissatisfied (and outright offended) by the way Young Living was conducting its business. Because of Gary Young’s outrageous practices, Young Living’s unequal and discriminatory pay for women, the diminishing quality of many of Young Living’s essential oils and Young Living’s relentless pressure to lie about the output of the Young Living farms to prop up the emerging Seed to Seal marketing scheme, each of them left Young Living.
David was fired in August 2007 and Emily quit a month later. They, along with other founders, eventually began planning what would soon become doTERRA, but, as the court found, assiduously avoided soliciting any Young Living distributors until they were contractually free to do so. Justin and Lil both quit in February 2008 and joined doTERRA soon after. Again, the court found that neither Justin nor Lil improperly solicited Young Living distributors before their respective “lock-out” periods expired.
In fact, the court’s decision shows that it was a wasteful and conniving use of our country’s legal system. What became abundantly clear through the course of the trial was not only that these four did not breach their contracts, but that they went to extraordinary steps to ensure they upheld their agreements. Over the past five years, even as no evidence of wrongdoing was ever disclosed, Young Living had countless opportunities to end this travesty. Nevertheless, despite having its case continually whittled down and now completely dismissed, it doggedly pursued its unfounded allegations to the bitter end.
Sworn court testimony and exhibit after exhibit conclusively showed that the 13 former Young Living distributors in question (as well as thousands of other now former Young Living distributors) left Young Living because they too were fed up with Gary Young’s bad acts and were searching for an essential oil company that guaranteed the highest quality essential oils, transparency in its business practices and honesty in its claims about the products. That company was and remains doTERRA.
“Today, we are gratified that an objective judge and jurors found that doTERRA had not done anything wrong and accordingly awarded no damages,” said Emily Wright, founding executive and head of sales and marketing at doTERRA. “Throughout this wasteful attack by Young Living and their rotating executive team, doTERRA has continued to impact more and more lives for good as we increase the doTERRA customer base in the United States and throughout the world. We look forward to a continued bright future at doTERRA.”
About doTERRA
doTERRA is the world leader in sourcing, testing, manufacturing, and distribution of CPTG® essential oils through a global network of more than 3 million independent direct-sale distributors, known as Wellness Advocates. doTERRA, the Latin derivative meaning “Gift of the Earth,” sets the standard for essential oils by having developed the expertise and commitment required to derive these unique oils directly from the best sources in the world. doTERRA Co-Impact Sourcing® provides local growers and distillers fair compensation for their efforts, creating stronger local economies and a healthier, stable supply chain. In addition to a premium line of single-plant extracts and proprietary essential oil blends, the company offers oil-infused personal care and spa products, dietary supplements, and healthy living products for the home.
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Media Contact
Kirk Jowers
doTERRA International, LLC
kjowers@doterra.com
(801) 437-4182