From Promises To Keep

by Charles Paul Conn

Page 76
The twenty-five-million-dollar fine to which you refer was a result of a customs dispute between Amway and Revenue Canada, the branch of the Canadian government which collects tariffs. The dispute was a complicated one which began in the early 1970's, when Amway first began shipping products from it manufacturing plant in Michigan across the international boundary to its distributors in Canada.

Because of Amway's unconventional marketing method, in which the company sells to "direct" distributors, who pass products on to other distributors, the question of how to fix the amount of customs duty to be paid by Amway was not readily answered. Amway paid according to an agreement made with Canadian officials at the time, which the Canadian courts have now ruled is invalid.

By the time all this legal maneuvering was over, tens of millions of dollars were at stake, and the fine, when it was finally levied, was a very large one. Even in Canadian dollars, twenty-five million is plenty. Little wonder the case produced headlines in hundreds of newspapers!