Jennifer Carrera filed a class-action complaint in California's Contra Costa Superior Court on February 13, 2025, accusing Pruvit Ventures Inc. and its parent company, LaCore Enterprises LLC, of misclassifying promoters as independent contractors. The lawsuit names eight company executives as defendants.
The suit, which also names executives Brian Underwood, Christopher Harding, Terry Lacore, Jennifer Grace, Debra Aaron, and Blake Mallen, alleges Pruvit structures its operations to evade employment laws. Carrera claims promoters are instructed to perform marketing, sales, customer service, and website traffic generation, receiving only minimal commissions for their efforts. She states she was paid "virtually nothing."
Pruvit's recent sale to Herbalife in March 2025 does not absolve the company or its executives from the allegations, according to the filing. The core of the complaint centers on California's Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), a 2019 law that established a stringent "ABC test" for worker classification.
Under AB 5, a worker is presumed to be an employee unless the hiring entity can demonstrate the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity, performs work outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature. The lawsuit asserts Pruvit fails this test because its extensive marketing guidelines, sales directives, and commission structures indicate promoters are not independent agents but rather directed labor.
The defendants may attempt to rely on AB 5's exemption for direct sales workers, which typically applies to in-person sales demonstrations. However, Carrera's complaint argues this exemption is inapplicable. Pruvit's sales and marketing efforts are primarily conducted online, not through the in-person demonstrations central to the direct sales exemption.
If Carrera prevails, members of the class could be entitled to recover unpaid wages, overtime compensation, penalties, and interest. Given Pruvit's extensive recruitment of distributors over the years, these damages could amount to millions of dollars. The lawsuit suggests Pruvit's promise of entrepreneurial opportunity for its promoters was, in reality, a strategy to secure a workforce of unpaid labor. The outcome will depend on how California courts interpret the application of AB 5 to Pruvit's business model.