[4] Some journalists have likened the multi-level marketing business model of Forever Living's distribution system to that of a pyramid scheme.

[11] Forever Living reported unaudited annual revenue exceeding $1.15 billion in 2005[2] and ended the year with around 150,000 distributors[12] and 55 employees.

[16] In 1996, upon suggestion of the American authorities, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the National Tax Agency of Japan (NTA) initiated a joint audit of Rex and Ruth Maughan and related entities Aloe Vera of America (AVA), Selective Art Inc., FLP International, and FLP Japan for the period of 1991 to 1995.

[18] In February 2015, a US district court ruled that the IRS knowingly provided some false information about AVA to the NTA, in violation of the United States' tax treaty with Japan[20] and awarded three of the plaintiffs one thousand dollars each in statutory damages.

[22] The lawsuit stated that for over 20 years Forever Living had used the character, storyline, and copyrighted excerpts from the novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull to promote its marketing plan, and also used the motion picture and novel as its corporate logo.

Subsequently, the UK Medicines And Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency launched an investigation after it was revealed that NHS staff were moonlighting as sales people.

[28][29][30] Between 2012 and 2016, several lawsuits were initiated by the Environmental Research Center (ERC) against Forever Living Products over alleged violations of Proposition 65 (the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Exposure Act).