Quixtar, sellers in court today

By JOE LaFURGEY
www.woodtv.com
Aug 22, 2007
GRAND RAPIDS -- The battle between Quixtar, Ada-based Alticor's online sales arm, and a group of distributors who want to break away and continue their own sales marketing business took center stage in a Grand Rapids courtroom Wednesday.
But not all the action's in the courtroom.

Minutes before the hearing, dozens of men and women, most of them wearing white shirts, lined up on the courthouse steps. All of them had the same thing to say when approached by 24 Hour News 8: "No comment."

The only clue to their part in this case where buttons they wore on their chest: I Was Burned By Quixtar.

Their silence remained a mystery. But court documents we obtained do speak.

There are three lawsuits:

Lawsuit #1 is an attempt to allow 15 former Quixtar distributors to continue their separate sales training company. Those distributors asked the judge to rule against Lawsuit #2.
Lawsuit #2 has Quixtar asking the judge to stop those distributors from operating their company. Quixtar claims they are in direct competition. The company's lawyers argue proprietary information and the 15 breakawayÂ distributors' access to other distributors creates an unfair advantage
Lawsuit #3 is the case that could have the most impact. The 15 distributors filed briefs in a California federal court challenging the legitimacy of Quixtar. They claim Quixtar's income is based on recruiting distributors, not selling products - making Quixtar a pyramid scheme

By late Wednesday afternoon, Judge Paul Sullivan decided there was too much information to plow through by the end of business. The hearing will continue Thursday morning.

A California judge will hear the merits of the third case beginning September 12.

Downstairs on the courthouse steps, the gang of white shirts slowly dissipated -- still offering no comment.

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