Is pyramid selling illegal or criminal?

MLM is a crime, which is bound by criminal law. The object of this crime is a complex object, which not only infringes on citizens' property ownership, but also infringes on the market economic order and social management order. The object of this crime is citizens' personal property, usually money. MLM is often accompanied by tax evasion and price gouging, which infringes on many social relations and legal objects.

According to the provisions of Article 224th of the Criminal Law on the crime of organizing and leading pyramid selling activities:

In the name of business activities such as selling goods and providing services, organizations and leaders require participants to obtain membership by paying fees or purchasing goods and services, and form a hierarchy in a certain order, directly or indirectly based on the number of people who have developed, luring or coercing participants to continue to develop pyramid schemes attended by others, defrauding property and disrupting economic and social order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and fined; If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and fined.

Extended data:

To identify pyramid schemes, we need to look at three characteristics:

1, registration fee

Whether it is necessary to subscribe for goods or pay fees to obtain franchise qualifications or develop others' franchise qualifications to seek illegal interests;

Step 2 pull people's heads

Whether it is necessary to develop others to become their own downline, and pay remuneration to the developed personnel based on the number of people directly or indirectly developed, so as to seek illegal interests;

3. Method of payment

Whether to directly or indirectly develop personnel to calculate remuneration and seek illegal interests.

If it meets the above characteristics, it may be suspected of pyramid schemes.