Freidl’s statement reveals false and misleading numbers. 

In its statement, the law firm Brandl Talos repeatedly emphasizes on behalf of Hubert Freidl that the private parties involved in the proceedings, i.e. the plaintiffs, are a small, unsuccessful part of the marketers.  

Freidl tries to substantiate this with marketer figures that have been communicated for the first time, it remains to be seen whether these are reliable figures and should be evaluated with caution as they expose all the figures previously used in marketing as false and untrue, which in itself is not surprising.

But let’s just take a look at the reasoning.  

According to Freidl, 704,726 marketers were working for Lyoness Europe AG worldwide in 2019. These are said to have been active marketers.  

The number of ‘inactive’ marketers is certainly much higher, which is probably due to the fact that everyone who received a cashback card is counted as a shopper. According to the information available to us, only 3 – 5 % activated their cashback card after receiving it. The actual regular use was only just over 1 %. This is also due to the fact that there are far better and more lucrative cashback systems that, for example, do not require a minimum turnover.  

It is mathematically impossible for Freidl to finance his entire system via cashback, although this has always been claimed to date.  

Freidl continues: In the years 2015 to 2019 (the following years are not meaningful due to the pandemic), purchasing turnover of EUR 3,607,758,807.55, i.e. around EUR 3.6 billion, was generated via the purchasing group. In 2018, a record amount of commission totaling EUR 152,312,454.21 was paid out to the marketers due to the corresponding success. The average earnings of active marketers totaled EUR 907.07 in 2018. (Source: page 4 statement) 

The disclosure of the actual figures, especially to whom exactly these sums were paid out as commissions, should be very interesting.  

In the following years, the number of marketers fell again to 579,512 due to the consequences of the pandemic and the switch of some marketers to the new Lyconet Austria GmbH sales system. However, a considerable number of people still worked for Lyoness Europe AG until its insolvency and also received remuneration from it. (Source: page 24) 

There are also said to have been significant distributions from the clouds. A total amount of EUR 12,882,458.34 was distributed from the Austrian cloud (ATCC).   At the same time, a distribution totaling EUR 29.7 million was made from the Polish cloud(source: page 25)

Of course, Freidl cannot prove this and the reality showed that the payouts were disappointing. This had nothing to do with the pandemic.

One court also stated, for example, that the individual marketer ‘virtually excludes any profit-making activity.’  

Freidl even agrees with this but argues that the (not particularly high) payments made by the plaintiff in this case could not actually lead to economically relevant payouts.  

Marketers only benefit from significant remuneration if they recruit numerous new members, who in turn realize a corresponding purchase volume and also bring as many new members into the system as possible. (Source: page 69) 

Currently, the myWorld/Lyconet website no longer shows the membership figures that are usually quoted. The claim that over 15 million shoppers use the myWorld programme does not correspond to the information available to us.  

We will stay tuned for you!