Eric Scheibeler Wins Major Victory in Amway-Quixtar Fight
This went virtually unnoticed, and it shouldn’t have:
Pennsylvania Court Denies Quixtar Arbitration in Scheibeler Case
On December 21, 2006 the court of Lycoming Pennsylvania in an order and opinion denied Quixtar arbitration in Quixtar’s claims of defamation against former Amway founder’s Emerald distributor and vocal Amway/Quixtar critic, Eric Scheibeler. Scheibeler had filed with the Pennsylvania court for a declaratory judgment to deny the arbitration claim.
In a stinging defeat for Quixtar’s premium outside counsel, Brinks Hofer and the attorney filing the arbitration demand, Robert Sobieraj, the court basically confirmed what was intuitively obvious at the beginning and that is that the arbitration agreement cannot be brought into force against a person who has been out of the Quixtar business for years. Judge Dorr issued his opinion that Quixtar’s arbitration process was unconscionable, anyone entering into arbitration with them can question whether they will even get a fair hearing.
The main points cited in the opinion denying arbitration were that Scheibeler has not been an Amway/Quixtar distributor for years and that the introduction of the Quixtar arbitration was made on a “take it or leave” basis. The opinion also stated that Amway/Quixtar/Alticor could take their complaints against Scheibeler in a public court if they wished to pursue the issue of defamation.
I have chronicled deep concerns about Amway Quixtar’s operations in the past because of the AQ connections of a “local” congressional candidate (here, here, here, and here, for starters), so there’s not point in rehashing the entire litany here.
Suffice it to say that an organization confident in its ethics and business practices wouldn’t force its members to agree to cult-like lifetime gag orders.
One would expect Amway Quixtar to attempt to “remedy” this situation by somehow making its agreement even more slanted against existing and potential new representatives. Anyone considering this “opportunity” should be totally aware of what they’re getting themselves into before signing their rights away.
