Direct Or Multi-Marketing Sales: Exploitation Of Women Or A Road To Economic Empowerment?

Direct sales or multi-level marketing are defined as a business model or strategy where the income of salesmen, in this case saleswomen, depend on their own sales and the people who they engage in turn to sell the same products. There are relatively few economic academic analyses on this phenomenon as well as few statistical and sociological studies. While in the United States the abuses committed by these companies and regulation to their model is already beginning to be sanctioned, especially those that are listed on the stock market, in Latin America there is still no concern for the abuses and frauds committed against vulnerable people who can lose all their savings in a fraudulent investment. We cite the scarce sociological research that focuses on the positive and negative effects that these companies have on women in particular, as well as on the figures that show how these companies focus on women and also on other groups of the population that can be more vulnerable to the abuses of these companies. Given the fight against informality that takes place in the region, it is recommended that legislative bodies, as well as the executive, legislate and control these companies, including the obligation to pay social security for sellers or their products. It is also recommended that international organizations, especially those that protect women's labor and social rights, refrain from creating alliances with these types of fraudulent enterprises.