He purchased a 160-acre (65 ha) farm in St. Maries, Idaho, with his wife in the early 1990s,[2][3] and Young Living was founded in 1993 in Riverton, Utah, with Gary as CEO,[4] and incorporated in 1994.

[7][8] Young Living lost the case in 2017,[9][10] and in 2018, a judge ordered it to pay doTerra's legal fees amounting to $1.8 million.

[11] The companies also settled lawsuits around faked lab tests, false advertising, and theft of trade secrets, and withdrew their negative claims in relation to the purity of each other's products.

[2] In 2017, the New Yorker reported that distributors are required by Young Living to make $100 of purchases per month to qualify for a commission.

[2][14] According to an analysis of the company's 2018 income disclosure statement by Business Insider, 89% of all members attempting their own business were on the bottom tier, earning an average of $4 annually, while those on the first three tiers, comprising 98.7% of active members, averaged between $4 and $1,551 annually, not counting required monthly costs to remain active with the company.

[2] A report by Business Insider in 2020 documented at least 11 complaints made to the FDA between 2013 and 2014 of "Young Living customers claiming serious adverse event reactions to the products".

The company disagreed and stated they would appeal, while at the same time agreeing to stop making various health and wellness claims about its products and their ingredients.

"[28] In 2000, the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division (UOSHD) investigated a distiller explosion that fatally wounded a worker at Young Living Farms in Mona.

[32][31] In April 2019, a proposed class-action lawsuit was filed under the RICO Act, alleging that Young Living is an unlawful pyramid scheme.