Italy's Competition Authority has slapped Lyoness with another €3 million fine for running an illegal pyramid scheme—the second time in five years the authority has caught them at it.

The AGCM issued the penalty on January 25th after finding that Lyoness, operating under the names myWorld Italia and Lyconet Italia, uses a cashback platform as window dressing for a classic recruitment-based fraud. The real money, investigators determined, comes from signing up an endless chain of new recruits who are promised returns when other recruits join beneath them.

Only 16 percent of Lyoness' Italian revenue actually came from legitimate cashback shopping. The rest was direct investment into what the company calls shopping units. That's the heart of the scheme: get people to buy in, then profit when their recruits buy in, and so on down the line until it collapses.

This is the second time Italy's competition watchdog has nailed them. Back in 2018, the AGCM investigated Lyoness and issued a €3.2 million fine after determining Italy was the company's main hunting ground for new investment. Lyoness responded by blocking access to its voucher investment scheme in Italy, which killed the operation there—at least temporarily. Italian victims lost an estimated 53 million euros by February 2019.

But Lyoness didn't stay dead for long. Traffic data to the myWorld website shows a sharp uptick starting in late 2020, with Italy now generating 40 percent of all traffic to the site. The company had quietly resumed recruiting, and the AGCM eventually noticed.

What's remarkable is how long it took. Lyoness has survived previous crackdowns by simply rebranding—changing company names, tweaking marketing language, shuffling the structure slightly. The core business model never changes: points, returns, recruitment, rinse and repeat. But the constant name changes and fresh terminology apparently created enough cover to let them operate below the radar for years.

Whether this second fine actually stops Lyoness in Italy remains unclear. The company has already shown it can lie low and resurface under a different name. Italian authorities will need to stay vigilant. Without active monitoring, there's no reason to believe Lyoness won't simply wait out the controversy and try again under yet another corporate alias.

🤖 Quick Answer

What is Lyoness and why has it been fined in Italy?
Lyoness, operating as myWorld Italia and Lyconet Italia, is a company that uses a cashback platform to disguise an illegal pyramid scheme. Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) fined it €3 million in January for recruitment-based fraud, where earnings primarily derive from recruiting new members rather than legitimate retail transactions.

How does Lyoness's fraudulent system operate?
The scheme generates revenue primarily through "shopping units"—investments required from members—rather than actual cashback purchases. Members are promised returns when new recruits join beneath them, creating a chain-based structure typical of pyramid schemes, with only 16 percent of revenue from genuine cashback shopping.

Is this Lyoness's first penalty from Italian authorities?
No. This €3 million fine represents the second enforcement action against

🔗 Related Articles

- Celion Hub Review: Jonathan Sifuentes fronts another MLM pyramid
- iGenius fined $4 million for pyramid fraud in Poland
- Guardian International Travel CEO charged on fraud
- Chen fighting SEC on monetary relief (USFIA)
- FINALLY: Speak Asia charged with money laundering