The case could be called Amway versus the Internet, or some might argue, Amway versus free speech.
The Ada Township-based multi-level marketing giant this week filed a sweeping suit in Ottawa County Circuit Court against 30 people classified as John Does for disparaging the company in blogs, online forums and YouTube videos.
The suit, filed by Quixtar, the online version of Alticor Inc.'s Amway business, asks the court for an injunction and damages of more than $25,000 against the anonymous posters.
The company is planning to ask the court to approve subpoenas of companies ranging from godaddy.com to YouTube to figure out who posted the materials, said spokesman Rob Zeiger.
Amway believes that this is the work of the distributors that recently took them to court, you see, so they need to round up everyone just to make sure. You got a problem with that?
The company believes the videos and other postings are part of an organized effort by former distributors, including Orrin Woodward, of Grand Blanc, under court order not to disparage the company or disclose proprietary information.
"Quixtar has attempted to identify the various defendants by reviewing the offending Web sites, blogs and videos," according to the suit.
"Due to the policies of the Internet service providers, which host the various Web sites, blogs and videos, Quixtar has been unable to identify the responsible parties."
But they will apologize if they unfairly targeted you. Maybe slip you a little coin to make it all go away.
Zeiger said the company will apologize and pay any costs incurred by any of the John Does who turn out not to be tied to Woodward and his TEAM organization of distributors.
"An individual who is expressing their own opinion, we don't have a problem with that," Zeiger said. "They're not doing anything wrong.
Don't you feel better now?
There is a reason why the DeVos family needs to be kept as far away as possible from the reins of power, and the tactics of Amway are example number one.