Young Living Essential Oils Marketed with Baseless Claims, Reports Say

Reporting by multiple national news outlets says that consultants for Young Living essential oils have been improperly marketing their products as capable of combating the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Recent reports from Business Insider, CNBC, and Salon describe efforts by Young Living’s multi-level marketing “members” to promote their essential oils as helpful in the fight to contain and resist COVID-19. In various examples cited on social media platforms, the sellers touted the oils and other products as an effective means to strengthen the immune system and fend off illness, intimating it could kill the novel coronavirus.

In a statement to Business Insider, officials with Young Living essential oils say they are monitoring the situation and have notified its salesforce that it is “wholly prohibited from making claims that any Young Living product can be used to prevent, cure, destroy, or contain the spread of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19.”

Young Living Essential Oils Social Media Marketing

The bulk of the claims and efforts to promote Young Living essential oils as a means of protection during the pandemic were found on Facebook and Instagram, according to the published reports, either in marketing posts or among members in sales groups.

CNBC reported in March that it found numerous instances of multilevel marketing companies, including Young Living, linking the promotion of products with the coronavirus pandemic.  Multilevel marketing companies sell products to consumers through representatives who earn sales commissions rather than being a paid salary. The sales reps also earn commissions on the sales of other salespeople they recruit.

A post cited by CNBC included a promotion for Young Living’s “Thieves” product line of cleaning solutions made with essential oils and denatured alcohol. The post begins with, “Worried About the Corona Virus? Thieves kills germs!” and goes on to say the bundle of products being featured amounted to “an economical way to kill the germs!”

Around the same time, a writer for Salon researched essential oil sales groups on Facebook and found that Young Living consultants were telling customers they were using the company’s essential oils to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Business Insider Investigation

In the months following the CNBC and Salon reports, Business Insider conducted an independent investigation of Young Living and its consultants’ marketing and promotional activities. Based on “interviews with more than 80 people and a review of thousands of pages of documents, obtained through records requests and from sources,” Business Insider says it found Young Living reps dispense medical advice without a scientific basis, among other things.

Young Living officials deny those claims and issued a statement to Business Insider saying, in part, “Since January 2020, Young Living has actively searched for and removed more than 1,500 improper COVID-related product or business opportunity claims made independently by members across social media and other channels, including freezing member accounts and terminating members to force member compliance.”

Among the examples of the social media activity cited by Business Insider was a Facebook post by a Young Living essential oils representative who claimed that essential oils “have been tested and shown effective against coronaviruses, and COVID 19 is just a new strain of a coronavirus.” Another was an Instagram post from a Young Living salesperson proclaiming she was not concerned about the shortages caused by COVID-19 at pharmacies because she’d “stocked up on essential oils and supplements that I know support a healthy immune system.”

FDA and FTC Warnings

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. There is currently no known vaccine, treatment or cure.

In recent months, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have issued warnings and sent letters to manufacturers of products – including essential oils – marketing products for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, telling them to stop this activity unless their claims can be proven.

Young Living did not receive a warning.

Since the start of the pandemic, the FTC issued warning letters to some 250 companies.

Young Living received a warning letter from the FDA in 2014 after its investigators discovered the company and its representatives were making claims on social media that its products could “treat, cure or prevent” the Ebola virus. If Young Living wanted to make such claims, it would have to submit an application to the FDA to have its products approved as medications, which requires the standard drug approval process, according to the warning letter.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.