multilevel marketingnoun.
A business that sells goods and services using a network of individuals ("distributors"). Each distributor is paid a commission on the sales they generate as well as the sales generated by distributors they recruit into the business.
Example Citation:
"In multilevel marketing, all customers are potential distributors, and each level of distributor gets a cut of the earnings of the next level; the best-known example is Amway. Multilevel marketing networks, with sales in the tens of billions annually, are derided as pyramid schemes by critics, but the difference is that in an illegal pyramid scheme, money is earned by recruiting new members rather than by selling products."
—Eric Hubler, "Magnet magnate draws Broncos to his business," The Denver Post, June 9, 1999
