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Herbalife investigation
By Edy Guadalupe Portal, Portal & Asociados
They accuse Herbalife of misleading advertising, blowing-up prices and designing an illegal sales structure attracting independent distributors to sell their products with the promise of revenues share.
Among those is Miguel Calderón, a Salvadoran inmigrant residing in Illinois who lost a 22 thousand dollar bank loan after engaging for Herbalife food, supplement and vitamin products selling. Caderón entered the business with a group of friends but “did´t get away sooner” because the team leader assured them that profits would come soon.
"I invested 22 thousand dollars in a year or so because I had to buy my products, sell them and make a monthly profit of 1,500 dollars, but it´s impossible. I only ask them to give us back the money we invest. They are fooling us. It´s not true what the company promises," he told El Diario.
The alleged fraudulent practices affected mainly the latin community: almost 60% of the company distributors in the US are latin.“Herbalife has an illegal pyramid scheme that takes advantage of the latin members of our community,” argued Brent Wilkes, director of the LULAC.
A class action was already brough in California against Herbalife but it is up to the federal government to begun the investigation.
Eproint
Whether your company is big or small, at Eproint you are our priority and we can take care of everything regarding legal processes to create and protect your brands, and provide you with an Intellectual Property strategy to achieve your goals.
In El Salvador, Practice Head Edy Guadalupe Portal is a partner at Eproint and has more than 25 years of experience in Intellectual Property. Since 1995, she has been recognized as the Salvadoran voice of Intellectual Property protection for always informing the IP community about changes to IP law and international treaties.
During her career, Mrs. Portal has helped numerous international law firms and in-house counsel with all facets of their IP matters in El Salvador and Central America. Her extensive practice includes work in trademarks, patents, industrial designs, utility models, copyrights, unfair competition, foreign investment, regulatory law/health registrations, licensing, franchising, appellations of origin, geographical indications, IP litigation, fashion law, new technologies, data privacy, cybersecurity, domain names, entertainment law, advertisement law, trade secrets, valuation of intangibles, and IP due diligence. She is also recognized for the great anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting results she has delivered for her clients. She also helps coordinate Latin America Intellectual Property Protection for the firm.