The ACN Pyramid Scam has hounded the company since its founding in 1993. There are lots of conflicting reports, reviews, and testimonials that crops us the internet when you try to look up the company and its history.

According to the ACN official website, “ACN is the largest direct selling telecommunications company in the world, providing services people need and use every day, including local and long distance calling, Internet, wireless, home security and satellite TV – as well as the very latest in technology and cutting edge services of the future with Digital Phone Service and revolutionary video phone. ACN’s Video Phone provides consumers with the unique opportunity to communicate face-to-face right from the comfort of home.”

Most of the negative reports stem from the multi-level marketing business strategy the company has adopted. It has drawn numerous complaints, bad publicities and was stuck with the moniker “ACN Pyramid Scam”. The ACN’s notoriety was further fuelled by the 2002 settlement of a case with the Bureau of Consumer Services in Pennsylvania, the 2002 allegations of the Competition Bureau of Canada that said ACN Canada exaggerated revenue expectations in the recruitment of new participants and charged the said company with the operation of a pyramid scheme, the 2004 ruling of Justice Selway that found the Australian Communications Network Pty Ltd (ACN Australian) of doing a pyramid selling scheme, a breach with Australia’s Trade Practices Act of 1974 and the 2007 ruling of the Tribunal de Grande Instance which slapped SAS ACN Communications France (ACN France) with a 15,000 Euros fine for being guilty of misleading advertisement.

These court cases have raised the spectre of an ACN pyramid scam but subsequent court rulings overturned some of the cases. Cases in point are the ACN Canada ruling; the Halifax Provincial Court dismissed all charges in the case and the Australian ruling which was overturned by the Australian Full Federal court and affirmed the appeal of the ACN, furthermore, the federal court ordered the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, the investigative body, to pay court costs to ACN, Inc.

The other prominent negative feedback comes from the high start-up fee ($499) which sets the tone of focus to recruitment of other members instead of the product they cater. An investigative reporter from Fox News 11 (Los Angeles) stated in a report that ACN has misled people with the money making opportunities.

Proponents of the ACN argue that the ACN pyramid scam is a baseless lie and an exaggeration of network marketing opponents. They contend that the basic corporate structure is also patterned like the pyramid and points out the similarity in relation to the salary and benefits gap of a CEO and a regular worker. Furthermore, they have stated that ACN isn’t a “get rich quickly” scheme but rather a well thought business investment that rewards the individual’s work with a compensation plan that they tout is as flexible with the effort you expend on the business.

Currently, ACN is a company that has presence in 21 countries all around the globe, generating $76.4 million in revenue. The products and services of the company has touched the lives of millions of users and the ACN opportunity is alive with the new blood coming in as independent representatives wishing to prosper with the company’s home-based business opportunity.