doTERRA International, LLC
The most honest income disclosure in the category, published by a company whose own numbers show the average active advocate earning $72 a month against roughly $100 of required monthly product purchase.
A clean eighteen-year regulatory record and a genuine consumer product, attached to participant economics the company itself discloses as negative.
Can you actually make money with doTERRA?
Yes, with conditions, and the conditions are stiff enough that most of this block is them. Start with what is real. Essential oils have standalone demand: Plant Therapy, Aura Cacia and NOW Foods sell the same category at scale with no income opportunity attached, and doTERRA's own figure is that roughly 93% of new US customers buy for personal use rather than to build. Entry is $35, frequently waived on a 150 PV order, $25 a year to renew, and there is no mandatory kit.
This company also publishes the most honest income disclosure in its category. It states that 58% of active US Wellness Advocates earned no commission in 2025. It gives medians beside averages, says before expenses out loud and lists the expense categories, and its own comp booklet says most Wellness Advocates join to purchase product at a discount and not to earn compensation. That is an operator undercutting its own recruiting pitch in its own documents, and it is rare enough to name.
Now the arithmetic inside that same document. Average monthly compensation across all active US Wellness Advocates was $72 in the third quarter of 2025. Staying qualified for Fast Start and Power of 3 requires 100 PV, roughly $100 of product, on a recurring Rewards order every month. The median experienced earner in the top half made $244 for the year. About 2% of active advocates ever hold Silver rank or above, so 98% never reach the first leadership rank.
And the plan's richest element is not retail. Fast Start pays 35% across three levels on a new enrollee's volume for their first 60 days, gated on the builder's own recurring order. Power of 3 pays $50, $250 and $1,250 for building three-wide pods of purchasing participants, with no requirement that any of that volume reach a non-participant. Retail, the only genuinely outward-facing component, pays 25%.
often waived on a 150 PV order; $25 annual renewal; no mandatory kit
- You are going to retail at 25% to people who are not in the business. That is the one component paying for a sale to an outsider, and covering the roughly $1,200 a year of qualifying orders from margin alone takes about $4,800 of retail sales.
- You can carry roughly $100 a month of your own product order without needing it back. Fast Start and Power of 3 qualification runs on it, and the company's own average across all active US advocates was $72 a month in the third quarter of 2025.
- You actually want the oils. Canceling the Rewards Program forfeits every accumulated point and the earned percentage rate, which climbs from 10% to 30% across thirteen months, so the longer you stay the more expensive leaving becomes.
- You have read the disclosure yourself rather than a recruiting deck. The 58% who were paid nothing in 2025 and the roughly 2% who ever reach Silver are both in the company's own published document.
That call is computed, not chosen - the rule reads three of the nine published dimension scores and is printed on the methodology page. It describes this company's plan and the figures it publishes about the people already in it. It is not a prediction about you, and nothing on this site is advice.
Legal status
LEGAL - no FTC complaint, no consent order, no pyramid finding, no state attorney general action and no criminal proceeding against the company in eighteen years. The blemishes are two warning letters (FDA 2014, FTC 2020), one adverse self-regulatory advertising decision it complied with, four self-regulatory inquiries, and stipulated orders against three individual distributors.
Confidence: Medium-High
Primary sources fetched directly where possible. Everything we could not verify is listed at the bottom of this page by name.
Follow the money
A Utah essential-oils company that sells through roughly 273,000 active US independent distributors called Wellness Advocates, paid on a unilevel plan with an enrollment-weighted Fast Start bonus and a three-wide structural bonus called Power of 3.
Start with what is genuinely good here, because it is unusual. doTERRA publishes an income disclosure that states the zero-earner rate prominently - 58% of active US Wellness Advocates earned no commission at all in 2025 - leads with medians rather than averages, and says in plain language that "most are like other customers and do not build a business" and that "There are no guarantees that you will earn money." Measured against the FTC's September 2024 staff report, which reviewed 70 MLM income disclosures and found most exclude non-earners and few use medians, that is above sector standard. The transparency is real credit. It is also what makes the rest of this report possible.
Because of what the disclosure shows. The comp-plan booklet states that average monthly compensation across all active US Wellness Advocates was $72 in the third quarter of 2025. The requirement to stay Fast Start– and Power-of-3–qualified is 100 PV a month, roughly $100 of wholesale product, on a standing Rewards order. The average active advocate therefore earns less each month than the company requires them to spend to keep earning it - before shipping, before samples, before a convention ticket, before anything. Among the 42% who did earn something in 2025, the median for the upper half of experienced advocates was $244 for the entire year, about $20 a month, against a minimum $1,200 of annual product spend. Roughly 2% of active advocates ever hold Silver rank or above, and Presidential Diamonds have averaged over 14 years to get there.
The product side is the strongest part of the file and should not be dismissed. Essential oils have genuine standalone retail demand - people buy them from Plant Therapy, Aura Cacia and NOW Foods with no income opportunity attached - and doTERRA's GC/MS testing program is a real quality operation, not a marketing conceit. Its own figure is that approximately 93% of new US customers are wholesale or retail buyers purchasing for personal use. The problem is not that the product is fake. It is that the bonus engine is indifferent to whether a buyer is a customer or a recruit, that the biggest bonus is gated on the builder's own autoship, and that the oils cost roughly two to five times per millilitre what independently tested equivalents cost on the open market.
Who earned what in 2025
From doTERRA's own published disclosure. Total derived from the stated 42% earner rate and headcounts.
| Product | Price | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment / membership Frequently waived on an enrollment order of 150 PV or more. Genuinely one of the cheaper doors in the category. |
$35 12 months |
— |
| Annual renewal Auto-charged to the card on file on the anniversary date under Policy Manual §2.F. |
$25 + tax annual |
— |
| Home Essentials Kit The standard builder entry. $373.33 at retail. Not mandatory, universally promoted. |
$280 wholesale one-time |
245 PV |
| Oil Collectors Kit Optional. A high-ticket entry point in a plan whose median experienced earner made $244 for the year. |
$2,250 wholesale one-time |
2,000 PV |
| 100 PV monthly Rewards order The single largest recurring cost of participation, ~$1,200/yr. It gates Fast Start, Power of 3 Level 1, Manager rank and the Empowerment Pool. |
~$100/mo recurring |
— |
| Lavender 15 mL The exact relationship across the price list is wholesale = retail × 0.75. A $9.67 gross margin per bottle, before shipping, samples and giveaways. |
$38.67 retail / $29.00 wholesale per bottle |
25% |
| Convention in-person pass Orlando, 23–26 September 2026. Realistic all-in for a traveling US attendee is around $1,800 once flights, four nights and add-ons are counted. |
$189 early / $229 annual |
— |
Who runs it, and what they ran before
Was Chief Operating Officer of the category’s older essential-oil incumbent and departed in 2007. Co-founded doTERRA in 2008, served as CEO to 2022, stepped away to serve as an LDS mission president while remaining on the board, and returned as CEO on 3 February 2026. No criminal conviction, securities action or regulatory bar located.
A former employee of the category’s older essential-oil incumbent, whose 2012 complaint alleged she "was privy to the most sensitive [company] information." That plaintiff lost the case and was found to have brought its trade-secret claim in bad faith. Her doTERRA biography states only that she has been "involved in [the] global essential oils market since [the] mid-90s" - the earlier employment is not mentioned.
Heads science, research, medical and safety, including the GC/MS testing program the company markets as CPTG. One of seven named founding executives, all of whom are publicly identified on doTERRA's own site.
Three CEOs in three years - Stirling, then Lindley, then Kirk Jowers from 2024, then Stirling again in February 2026. In the same reshuffle, Jessica Moultrie was appointed President, North America; she is a Presidential Diamond–rank Wellness Advocate promoted into corporate executive leadership, which aligns the top of the field with the top of the company.
Registered address
Pleasant Grove, Utah, USA
Privately held and founder-controlled, registered in Utah, with doTERRA Holdings, LLC holding the trademark portfolio. There are no audited public accounts, so revenue figures are either company statements or third-party estimates. What the company does publish is a US income disclosure - and that single document carries more weight in this report than anything else in the file.
The veteran's checklist
Eight questions that decide whether this is a business or a transfer mechanism. Same eight, every review.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who legally owns it? |
WATCH
doTERRA International, LLC, privately held and founder-controlled, with doTERRA Holdings, LLC (Utah) holding the trademarks. The cap table is not disclosed.
|
| Where is it incorporated? |
OK
Utah, headquartered in Pleasant Grove. Eighteen years in business, BBB accredited since May 2017 with an A+ rating.
|
| Regulatory action against the company, ever? |
WATCH
No FTC action, consent order, pyramid finding, state AG action or criminal proceeding. Two warning letters (FDA 2014, FTC 2020), one adverse NARB decision it complied with, four DSSRC inquiries. The 2023 $15,000 stipulated orders were against three individual distributors, not doTERRA.
|
| Published income disclosure? |
OK
Yes, and it is better than most in the category - zero-earner rate stated prominently at 58%, medians led, "before expenses" said explicitly. It also shows the average active advocate earning $72 a month.
|
| What does it take to break even? |
CONCERN
Roughly $4,800 of retail sales just to cover the ~$1,200 standing order at the 25% retail margin, and about $15,600 to cover a realistic $3,900 all-in year.
|
| Is there a monthly purchase requirement? |
CONCERN
Not to hold an account, but yes to be paid on other people's activity: 100 PV on an active recurring Rewards order gates Fast Start and Power of 3 Level 1.
|
| Is there genuine retail demand? |
OK
Yes. Essential oils sell at scale from independent brands with no income opportunity attached, and doTERRA's own figure is that ~93% of new US customers buy at wholesale or retail for personal use.
|
| Merchant play or miner play? |
WATCH
Mixed and tilted toward miner. Retail pays 25%; Fast Start pays 35% across three levels on enrollment volume and requires your own autoship.
|
What has to be true for you to get paid
| To cover | You need |
|---|---|
| Hold an account for a year | $35 + $25 enrollment, often waived on a 150 PV order, then renewal |
| Stay Fast Start and Power of 3 qualified | ~$100/mo 100 PV on a recurring Rewards order = ~$1,200/yr |
| Cover that $1,200 from retail margin alone | ~$4,800 of retail sales at the 25% retail margin doTERRA discloses |
| Cover a realistic $3,900 all-in year | ~$15,600 of retail sales against the $864 the average active advocate actually earned |
Read this twice
This is the arithmetic that decides the grade, and it comes entirely from doTERRA's own documents. The compensation booklet states that average monthly compensation across all active US Wellness Advocates was $72 in the third quarter of 2025 - $864 for a full year at that rate. The Policy Manual requires 100 PV, roughly $100 of wholesale product, on an active recurring Rewards order to collect Fast Start, and 100 PV of Rewards volume for Power of 3 Level 1. So the average active advocate is spending about $1,200 a year to earn about $864 a year: negative by roughly $336 before a single dollar of shipping, samples, giveaway product, brochures, regional trainings or a convention ticket. Add those and a genuinely active builder should budget $3,000 to $4,500 a year, of which perhaps $1,300 to $1,600 comes back as product they may or may not have bought anyway. Two honest caveats cut in doTERRA's favor. The $100 is a purchase, not a fee - you receive product, and if you would have bought oils regardless the true cost is the price premium rather than the whole sum. And the 100 PV order is not required to hold an account; it is required to be paid on other people's activity. But that is precisely the point: the moment you decide to build rather than simply buy, the standing order becomes the price of admission, and the average person who pays it does not earn it back.
Run your own numbers
Drag the sliders. Nothing here is stored or sent.
25% retail margin on a roughly $52 monthly order. Cost is the 100 PV standing order that gates Fast Start and Power of 3. For calibration, the average active US advocate earned $72/mo in Q3 2025 - below that standing order. Your own subscription cost of $100/mo is included.
What it costs to replace this yourself
What the same oils cost from a third-party GC/MS-tested brand on the open market. doTERRA figures are its own published Spring/Summer 2026 retail prices; the replacement column is derived from the roughly 2x to 5x per-millilitre premium documented against independently tested competitors, and is presented as a band rather than a single price because comparator pricing could not be captured for every brand.
| What they sell you | What you'd use instead | Your cost |
|---|---|---|
| Lavender 15 mL - $38.67 retail ($2.58/mL) | Third-party GC/MS-tested lavender, same volume | ~$8–19 |
| Peppermint 15 mL - $34.67 retail ($2.31/mL) | Independently tested peppermint, same volume | ~$7–17 |
| Frankincense 15 mL - $105.33 retail ($7.02/mL) | Independently tested frankincense carterii | ~$21–53 |
| On Guard protective blend 15 mL - $52.00 retail ($3.47/mL) | An open-market clove/cinnamon/citrus immune blend | ~$10–26 |
| Home Essentials Kit - $373.33 retail | Equivalent starter set of independently tested oils plus a diffuser | ~$90–190 |
| Total as sold ~$604 at retail |
Total, built yourself ~$136–305 |
Price-to-value
Roughly a 2x to 5x premium per millilitre. What you are buying at the top of that range is doTERRA's sourcing program, its GC/MS testing regime and the person who taught you to use the oils - all of which are real. What you are not buying is a chemistry unavailable elsewhere, and you are not buying an independent certification: CPTG is doTERRA's own registered trademark and internal standard. NARB required the word "Therapeutic" removed from it in 2021, and doTERRA removed it.
Three operators, five horizons
Probability of cumulative net profit
Hover any point for median, top decile and bottom quartile.
Casual advocate
joins for the wholesale price, shares occasionally, no standing order
| Horizon | P(profit) | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 mo | 9% | −$180 |
| 6 mo | 12% | −$210 |
| 1 yr | 15% | −$240 |
| 3 yr | 14% | −$380 |
| 5 yr | 13% | −$470 |
Part-time builder
10 hrs/wk, warm market, 100 PV standing order, one regional event
| Horizon | P(profit) | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 mo | 6% | −$700 |
| 6 mo | 9% | −$1,300 |
| 1 yr | 12% | −$2,500 |
| 3 yr | 17% | −$5,800 |
| 5 yr | 19% | −$8,400 |
Full-time builder
30+ hrs/wk, 150–200 PV, classes, convention, tools
| Horizon | P(profit) | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 3 mo | 3% | −$1,700 |
| 6 mo | 6% | −$3,200 |
| 1 yr | 10% | −$5,600 |
| 3 yr | 16% | −$12,000 |
| 5 yr | 18% | −$16,000 |
Methodology note. Unusually for this site, part of this table is anchored rather than modeled, and it is worth being explicit about which part. ANCHORED to doTERRA's published 2025 disclosure and comp-plan booklet: that 58% of active US Wellness Advocates earned no commission at all, which is why no cohort here shows a majority in profit at any horizon; that average monthly compensation across all active US advocates was $72 in Q3 2025; that the median for the top half of experienced earners was $244 for the year and $435 for first-year earners; that top-1% experienced earners had a median of $66,067 and an average of $129,857, which sets the ceiling on the five-year "top" column; and that roughly 2% of active advocates ever reach Silver or above. MODELED by us: the entire cost side, because doTERRA publishes expense categories but no dollar figure, so no net income can be computed from official sources; the percentage of each cohort in cumulative profit; and the cohort definitions themselves, which doTERRA does not segment. The published tables also exclude the 58% who earned nothing from every cell - once you put them back in, the median annual commission across all active US advocates is $0, because more than half earned nothing. That is why the medians here are negative where the company's own tables look positive.
Where you are actually allowed to promote this
Platform policy reads, not verifications. Check every one before you spend a dollar - enforcement changes faster than the written policy does.
Red flags and green flags
Red flags
141The average active advocate earns less than they are required to spend
258% of active US Wellness Advocates earned zero commission in 2025
3The median experienced earner in the top half made $244 for the year
4Fast Start pays 35% across three levels on enrollment volume
5The biggest bonus is gated on the builder's own autoship
6Power of 3 requires no sale to any non-participant
7Only ~2% of active advocates ever hold Silver or above
8Four DSSRC proceedings in six years on recurring claim categories
9A 2020 FTC warning letter covering both COVID claims and earnings claims
10A 2014 FDA warning letter deeming the products unapproved new drugs
11NARB found the core quality claim unsupported and forced "therapeutic grade" out
12Binding arbitration in Provo, Utah with a class waiver and a one-year limit
13Canceling the Rewards Program forfeits every point and the earned rate
14A $450m dividend recapitalisation in 2019, then a 7% workforce cut in 2024
Green flags
91It publishes an income disclosure, leads with medians, and discloses its zero-earner rate
2The company says in plain language that most participants do not build a business
3No FTC action, consent order, pyramid finding or state AG action in eighteen years
4The 2023 stipulated orders were against three individual distributors, not the company
5It won the trade-secret litigation outright
6Essential oils have genuine standalone retail demand and the testing is real
7Entry is genuinely cheap and the buyback is genuinely good
8The written income-claim policy is above sector standard, and there is a compliance department with teeth
9It complied with the adverse NARB decision, and handled the CPSC recall properly
We would like to be wrong about this
Upward
- A full per-rank income table including the 58% who earned nothing, with headcounts from Manager to Presidential Diamond and a median expense figure alongside the median commission, so a reader can compute net.
- A verified retail-sales requirement for bonus qualification - documented sales to non-participants before Power of 3 or Unilevel pays - decoupling the 100 PV autoship gate from commission eligibility, and removing the requirement that Fast Start be gated on the builder's own recurring order.
- Two consecutive years with no new DSSRC or regulator matter, plus published enforcement statistics and a resumption of annual revenue disclosure.
Downward
- Any FTC complaint, civil investigative demand or consent order naming doTERRA itself rather than its distributors - the single largest available downgrade.
- A fifth DSSRC case on the same claim categories, or a DSSRC referral to the FTC for non-compliance rather than another administrative closure.
- Filed arbitration awards or a court finding on the pyramid-scheme or income-misrepresentation counts now being solicited, or a confirmed multi-year revenue decline and further large workforce reduction.
Grade is D+. The company is clean, the product is real, the disclosure is honest - and the disclosure says the average participant loses money.
It is worth stating the credit side plainly before the criticism, because this file is not the usual shape. Eighteen years, no FTC action, no consent order, no pyramid finding, no state attorney general action, no criminal proceeding. A real manufactured consumer good with independent retail demand and a genuine GC/MS testing program behind it. A published income disclosure that leads with medians, states the zero-earner rate at 58% and tells readers in the company's own words that most advocates do not build a business. When the founders’ former employer sued them, doTERRA won, and the court found the plaintiff had falsified evidence and awarded doTERRA $1.8 million in fees. Very little in this category can say any of that.
And then the arithmetic. Average monthly compensation across all active US Wellness Advocates was $72 in Q3 2025. The product purchase required to stay Fast Start– and Power-of-3–qualified is 100 PV, roughly $100, every month, on a standing order. The average active participant is underwater before shipping, before samples, before the $229 convention pass and the flights to Orlando. The median for the upper half of experienced earners was $244 for the year. Roughly 2% ever hold Silver. None of this is an allegation, an estimate or an inference - it is the operator's own published number, which is exactly why the transparency and the low grade are not in tension. doTERRA told you.
The structural reason is in the plan. Fast Start pays 35% across three levels on enrollment volume for 60 days, whether or not the enrollee ever sells anything, and it is gated on the builder's own recurring autoship. Power of 3 pays for three-wide pods of purchasing participants with no sale to any non-participant required. Retail - the only outward-facing component - pays 25%, thin by any specialty-retail standard, which is why the plan's gravity pulls toward recruiting rather than selling. Meanwhile the compliance record shows what happens downstream: twelve years of health and income claims made by advocates rather than by the company, four self-regulatory cases in six years, and a 31-person team monitoring roughly 3 million distributors. The honest version of this business is a small one - someone who genuinely likes the oils, sells them at 25% to people who reorder, and never says the word "cure."
Do the $72 versus $100 sum before you enrol, not after
The company publishes both numbers. If the standing order is the price of being paid, and the average person paid is earning less than the order costs, then the question is not whether you can win - it is whether you have a reason to think you are not average. Write that reason down first.
If you want the oils, buy the oils
You do not need a compensation plan to own lavender. Third-party GC/MS-tested equivalents run roughly two to five times cheaper per millilitre, and nothing about buying them commits you to a $1,200-a-year standing order. The $35 membership is only worth it if the wholesale discount beats the open-market price on what you actually use.
Never make the claim that is doing the selling
Every regulator item in eighteen years originated in distributor speech. The FDA held the company responsible in 2014, the FTC in 2020, and in 2023 three individual distributors - two of them clinicians - each paid a $15,000 civil penalty under stipulated orders. Company policy already bars medical claims; the enforcement record shows how routinely the field ignores it, and the person who publishes is the person exposed.
Serve the field rather than joining it
Roughly 273,000 active US advocates operating under a policy manual that bans branded social accounts, bans marketplace selling, requires disclaimers on every site and requires the doTERRA Earnings Statement on every income illustration - and four DSSRC cases show they keep getting it wrong. Compliance-safe copy, claim libraries and class materials are a merchant business against a demonstrated, regulator-created need.
Nine dimensions, weighted
Dimension profile
Further from center is better. Hover any point.
Hard caps that bind here
The lowest binding cap wins, regardless of the weighted arithmetic.
What we read
Every source below links to the document itself. Tier 1 is a primary record - the company’s own plan, policy or disclosure, a court filing, a regulator’s decision or an SEC filing. Tier 2 is a self-regulatory or secondary regulator record, tier 3 reporting or academic work, tier 4 an open-market price comparison. Where a document can be moved or withdrawn, an archived copy is linked beside it. If a link is dead when you try it, that is a correction we want.
- 2026 dōTERRA Opportunity and Earnings Disclosure Summary (PDF) - 2025 US data, ~58% of active Wellness Advocates earned no commissions
doTERRA Opportunity and Earnings Disclosure Summary, 2026 edition covering 2025 US data - 58% zero-earner rate, median and average bands, top-2% rank statement
- "Becoming a Wellness Advocate" - dōTERRA income disclosure landing page (doterra.com/disclosure)
- 2023 dōTERRA Opportunity and Earnings Disclosure Summary (prior-year edition, doterra.com/US/en/disclosure)
- dōTERRA "Earning With dōTERRA" - Compensation Plan Elevated mini booklet, US English (PDF)
doTERRA "Earning With the Compensation Plan" (Elevated) booklet - $72 average monthly compensation across all active US WAs in Q3 2025; Fast Start, Unilevel and pool percentages
- dōTERRA Compensation Plan Elevated - Summary sheet, US English (PDF, rev. 050125)
- dōTERRA Compensation Plan - US flyer (Retail Profit, Fast Start, Power of 3, Unilevel, Pools) (PDF)
- dōTERRA Policy Manual, United States - English (PDF)
doTERRA US Policy Manual - §8.B Fast Start qualification, §8.C Power of 3, §8.H clawback, §9.E medical claims, §10.F income claims, §11.B online selling, §7.E cross-recruiting
- Notice of Amendment and Modification to Wellness Advocate Terms and Conditions and the United States Policy Manual, 12 November 2025
- dōTERRA Wellness Advocate Terms and Conditions (incorporating the Policy Manual and Sales Compensation Plan)
- dōTERRA Power of 3 Pod Flexibility one-pager, US English (PDF)
doTERRA Power of 3 one-pager, March 2026; enrollment kits price list, 25 Feb 2025; product guide quick reference, Spring/Summer 2026; Loyalty Rewards Program flyer
- dōTERRA Enrollment Kits price list, US (PDF - SKUs, wholesale prices and PV)
- dōTERRA Product Guide Price List / Quick Reference, US (PDF)
- dōTERRA Product Guide, Spring/Summer 2026 (PDF)
- FTC Warning Letter to doTERRA International, LLC, 24 April 2020 (case page)
FTC warning letter to doTERRA International, LLC, 24 April 2020; FTC and DOJ press releases on the three distributor stipulated orders, 3 March 2023; FTC MLM income-disclosure staff report, September 2024
- FTC COVID-19 warning letter to doTERRA International, LLC, 24 April 2020 (PDF)
- FTC press release: "FTC Sends Warning Letters to Multi-Level Marketers Regarding Health and Earnings Claims…Related to Coronavirus", 24 April 2020
- FTC press release: "FTC Takes Action Against doTERRA Distributors for False COVID-19 Health Claims", 3 March 2023
- FTC case page - doTERRA – Bacot (N.D. Ga.), stipulated order and $15,000 civil penalty
- FTC case page - doTERRA – Busch (D. Utah, 2:23-cv-00009)
- FTC case page - doTERRA – Wong (C.D. Cal., 2:23-cv-00063)
- Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction, Civil Penalty Judgment and Other Relief - United States v. Wong, C.D. Cal. 2:23-cv-00063 (PDF)
- Complaint, United States v. Busch, D. Utah 2:23-cv-00009, filed 5 January 2023 (PDF)
- DOJ press release: "United States Obtains Permanent Injunctions and Civil Penalties in Actions Against California…", 3 March 2023
- Multi-Level Marketing Income Disclosure Statements - An FTC Staff Report, September 2024 (PDF)
- FTC report landing page - Multi-Level Marketing Income Disclosure Statements, September 2024
- FDA Warning Letter to dōTERRA International, LLC, 22 September 2014 (archived copy of the FDA page, ucm415809)
FDA warning letter, 22 September 2014, as reported contemporaneously by Herald Extra, Deseret News, CNN and BuzzFeed News
- Full text of the 22 September 2014 FDA warning letter to dōTERRA International, LLC (PDF mirror)
- Reuters, "FDA issues warning letters on Ebola treatment claims", 24 September 2014
- CNN, "FDA warns consumers about fake Ebola drugs", 26 September 2014
- BuzzFeed News, "FDA Warns 3 American Companies Selling Phony Ebola Treatments", 25 September 2014
- NARB press release: "National Advertising Review Board Recommends doTERRA Discontinue Certain Health Benefit and 'Therapeutic Grade' Essential Oil Claims", 31 March 2021
BBB National Programs - NARB decision 31 March 2021; DSSRC cases #17-2020, #51-2021, #178-2024 and #249-2026 (closed 7 January 2026); BBB business profile
- DSSRC Case #17-2020 - NGO Inquiry, dōTERRA International LLC
- DSSRC Case #51-2021 - Compliance Report, dōTERRA International, LLC
- DSSRC Case #178-2024 - Formal Administrative Closure, doTERRA, Inc.
- DSSRC Case #249-2026 - Administrative Resolved Inquiry, doTERRA, Inc. (closed January 2026)
- BBB National Programs newsroom: "dōTERRA Discontinues Health-Related Product and Earnings Claims"
- BBB Business Profile - doTERRA (doTERRA International, LLC), Pleasant Grove, Utah
- doTERRA press release: "Judge Finds Young Living Acted in Bad Faith and Awards doTERRA Nearly Two Million Dollars in Legal Fees and Costs" - $1,810,344.11 plus ~$50,000 costs, 12 July 2018
Utah Fourth District Court, trade-secret suit brought against the doTERRA founders by their former employer - bad-faith finding and $1.8m fee award, 12 July 2018, reported by KSL, Salt Lake Tribune and PR Newswire
- Salt Lake Tribune, "Judge finds Young Living acted in 'bad faith,' orders it to pay doTERRA $1.8 million", 12 July 2018
- KSL.com, "Young Living to cover $1.8M in Doterra attorney fees following yearslong court battle"
- Deseret News, "Young Living to cover $1.8M in Doterra attorney fees following yearslong court battle", 12 July 2018 - names Fourth District Judge Christine Johnson and the evidence-tampering finding
- Defense counsel's account of the 10 July 2018 Ruling in Young Living Essential Oils, LC v. dōTERRA, Inc. et al. (Utah Fourth Judicial District Court), quoting the fee ruling
- CPSC Recall 21-734: dōTERRA Recalls 1.3 Million Bottles of Deep Blue, PastTense and Deep Blue Touch Essential Oils (child-resistant packaging), 1 April 2021
CPSC recall 21-734, 1 April 2021; Direct Selling News on 2024 revenue and the May 2024 workforce reduction; PitchBook and OpenCorporates for entity and capital-event data
Not established by this document: The PitchBook and OpenCorporates entity/capital-event records named in this prose entry are behind a paywall or were not located at a stable public URL; the recall, revenue and workforce citations above cover the rest of the entry.
- Direct Selling News, "doTERRA Reports 2024 Revenue Results" - annual sales surpassing $2 billion, 14 April 2025
- Direct Selling News, "doTERRA Cost-Management Plan Leads to Workforce Reduction" - 7% of workforce, ~290 employees, 13 May 2024
- KSL NewsRadio, "doTERRA International laying off 7% of its workforce", 10 May 2024
What we could not get
- doTERRA's 2025 revenue - no company announcement located; the $2.0bn / 0% growth figure is a third-party estimate, and doTERRA does not appear in the 2026 DSN Global 100
- The total compensation payout percentage - doTERRA does not publish it; the ~35% figure circulating is a third-party estimate
- A current per-rank income table with headcounts - the last rank-level table located is the 2018 disclosure, eight years old and not presented here as current
- The total number of active US Wellness Advocates - the ~273,000 used in this report is derived from the published 42% earner rate and the stated headcounts, not a doTERRA figure
- Typical participant expenses in dollars - doTERRA lists expense categories but publishes no dollar figure, so no net-income figure can be computed from official sources
- The exact text of the 2014 FDA warning letter - the available mirror is blocked by robots.txt, so contemporaneous news reporting was relied on instead
- Whether any claim in the 2026 mass-arbitration campaign has actually been filed, and any outcome - the source is a law-firm solicitation page only
- Enforcement statistics - no published count of advocates warned, suspended, terminated or subject to bonus clawback; and comparator pricing for Aura Cacia, whose page could not be captured
Not advice
This is independent analysis for decision-making, not legal, financial or investment advice. Allegations reported by third parties should be verified against primary court and regulatory records before any decision.
Researched by Claude. Reviewed by an editor.
Every report is researched and written by Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, from the company’s own plan documents, policies, terms and regulatory file - then reviewed before publication by Rob Fore, who checks the sources and the stage-label on every allegation.
- Nine weighted dimensions, published with their weights
- The editor checks the evidence and cannot change the number - the build rejects any page whose grade does not reconcile to its own arithmetic
- Every affiliate position we hold is disclosed on the report it touches
- No company has paid for a grade, and no report carries an affiliate link
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doTERRA - frequently asked
QIs doTERRA a pyramid scheme?
QHow much do doTERRA Wellness Advocates actually earn?
QDo you have to buy products every month to earn with doTERRA?
QHas doTERRA been sued or sanctioned by regulators?
QAre doTERRA oils worth the price?
Author, editor and publisher
This report was researched and written by Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, working from primary documents - doTERRA’s own compensation plan, its policies and procedures, its terms of service, its income disclosure statement where one exists, and its regulatory and self-regulatory file. It was scored against nine weighted dimensions that are published in full, with their weights, on the methodology page.
Before publication it was reviewed by Rob Fore, who checks every source link, every figure against the document it came from, and every allegation against its stage-label - an investigation is not a finding, a warning letter is not an enforcement action, and a filed claim is not a verdict.
The editor does not set the grade. The published score is the weighted composite of the nine dimension scores, and the build refuses to emit a page where the two disagree by more than 0.06. A grade moves when the evidence moves it and not otherwise.
Rob Fore has marketed online since 1996, wrote Online MLM Marketing (2014), and is CEO of Listech Inc, the Nevada corporation that publishes this site. He holds affiliate positions in companies graded here - including LiveGood, which this site grades D, SendOutCards, which it grades C−, and the Home Business Academy, which it grades B−. Those positions are disclosed on the reports they touch, and changed nothing on this page.
About the author and our conflicts · Contact the editor · Corrections: corrections@opportunitygrade.com
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Corrections
Every factual claim on this page is sourced, and the ones we could not stand up are named in the unable to verify list above. If something here is wrong, we want to know, and we would rather hear it from doTERRA than from a reader.
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