Press release on Lyoness/Lyconet/myWorld from the APA (Austrian Press Agency). Illegality of Lyoness confirmed? Lyconet only legal since 2018?

Note: The Chamber of Labour (AK) legally represents employees in Austria. The state requires most employees to be members of the Chamber.

The APA published a press release (see below) on Lyoness/Lyconet/myWorld. The marketers were contacted directly by the myWorld Solution with a roundmail to reassure them once againBut it also raises questions.

The following information was sent by myWorld Solutions to its marketers: “Media reports casting parts of our group in a negative light have surfaced in the last few days – especially against myWorld Solutions, myWorld Austria and Cashback World, which have not been subjected to any litigation. We are working intensively with our PR agency and legal department to correct these false reports.”

Wait a moment – parts of the group have been cast in a negative light? This means that the other parts of the group have been correctly reported in the press. Thank you for your honesty, myWorld.

But this isn’t about myWorld, it’s about the Lyoness/Lyconet pyramid scheme. Lyconet International AG registered in Vienna has only just been established, so of course there are no judgments against it yet – especially as the myWorld group is constantly trying to play for time in ongoing proceedings. Amongst others, the Norwegian prohibition case has already classed the Lyconet system as a pyramid scheme. Austrian judgements have also found against Lyconet, just not the “new” company Lyconet International AG. This looks like a whitewashing campaign by the myWorld group.

We’ve still not seen any rectification from the media that they’ve so confidently promised. I recall the internationally known so-called “MasterCard lie” that went through the media in July 2016. They also promised rectification at the time, but this has not been forthcoming to this day due to the conclusive evidence backing up the “MasterCard lie”. Lyoness lied then, and even doubled down with another lie – “MyCard”.

Companies within the corporate structure are routinely unnamed, merged, reestablished or given new company identities with the previous company names ruined. The known decision-makers at Lyoness as company directors and officers have always been swept through with the changes, leaving us with new company names together with old faces and working methods as directors. This has been the same story throughout the seventeen-year history of Lyoness, then Lyconet, then myWorld.

The criminal investigation at the time was abandoned due to legal formalities, but they dressed it up as an acquittal for the marketers. The charges were dropped regarding the operation of an “illegal pyramid scheme and chain letter system”. The media also harshly condemned the abandonment of investigations and the failures of the investigative authorities. This does not in any way change the fact that Lyoness/Lyconet are in fact a “forbidden pyramid scheme” as confirmed in hundreds of judgements in Austria, with the Norwegian prohibition case also covering Lyconet and Italy and Poland also classifying the system as such. It is not illegal to operate a pyramid scheme in Austria, leaving civil courts to deal with the matter.

The claim has been made that myWorld has nothing to do with Lyoness/Lyconet, but in 31 countries the “Lyconet websites” include the following: All products shall be provided by mWS myWorld Solutions AG, Grazbachgasse 87-93, 8010 Graz, Austria, Austrian Commercial Register FN 389134g, E-mail: [email protected]

The facts: Up to the end of 2014 or so, Lyoness was synonymous with Lyconet – Cashback and “recruiting new members” for the then country packages (the later modified “Cloud”). The many complaints have led to a Lyconet separating “Cashback” from “recruiting new members”.