Young Living Essential Oils has been through a decade of serious legal trouble. The Utah-based multilevel marketer paid $5 million to settle a false-advertising class action in 2024, faces two active pyramid-scheme lawsuits, pleaded guilty in 2017 to federal charges for illegally trafficking protected plant species, has received at least two FDA warning letters over unauthorized health claims, and was sanctioned nearly $2 million for bad-faith litigation against its rival doTERRA. The Young Living lawsuits below are the ones that have shaped the company’s legal record.
The $5 Million False Advertising Settlement
The highest-profile consumer case is MacNaughton v. Young Living Essential Oils. Lead plaintiff Lori MacNaughton challenged the company’s labeling of its oils as “100% Pure, Therapeutic-Grade” and its promotion of them as capable of relieving stress, improving sleep, boosting focus, and enhancing mood. The complaint alleged the products provided “no health or medicinal benefit whatsoever” and that consumers paid a premium of up to $36 per bottle for benefits that didn’t exist.1ClassAction.org. No Medicinal Benefit: Young Living Hit With Class Action Challenging Essential Oil Health Benefit Claims
A federal judge first dismissed the claims as “puffery.” In May 2023, the Second Circuit revived them, rejecting that characterization and finding that whether a reasonable consumer would rely on the health statements was a “fact-intensive inquiry” not suitable for dismissal at the pleading stage.2NY Daily Record. Second Circuit: Misleading Advertisements, MacNaughton v. Young Living Essential Oils LC
The parties reached a $5 million settlement on May 14, 2024. Young Living also agreed to drop “therapeutic-grade” from its product labeling and marketing. The case was filed as No. 24LA0329 in the Circuit Court of St. Clair County, Illinois, with final approval set for July 15, 2024.3Top Class Actions. Young Living Essential Oil $5M Class Action Settlement The class covered U.S. purchasers of Young Living essential oils between January 1, 2017, and April 25, 2024. The claims deadline was June 24, 2024, and the window is closed.
Before the lawsuit, the National Advertising Review Board had already told Young Living in November 2020 to stop using “therapeutic grade” and various health-benefit claims, finding them unsupported by competent scientific evidence. The company said it would comply, but the MacNaughton complaint alleged the labeling continued on its website and third-party retail sites into January 2021.4ClassAction.org. MacNaughton v. Young Living Essential Oils LLC, Complaint
Pyramid Scheme Class Actions
Two separate 2019 class actions accused Young Living of running an illegal pyramid scheme, alleging its compensation plan rewarded recruitment far more than actual product sales.
O’Shaughnessy v. Young Living
Julie O’Shaughnessy, a Young Living member, filed suit in April 2019 in the Western District of Texas. The complaint alleged that the compensation structure was “overwhelmingly dependent on the recruitment of new people,” and that 94 percent of members earned an average of about $1 per month in sales commissions while being required to make monthly purchases to stay active. The suit included RICO claims alleging wire and mail fraud.5The Fashion Law. Young Living: The $1.5 Billion Essential Oil Co. Is a Cult-Like Pyramid Scheme, Per New Lawsuit
Young Living tried to compel arbitration. A magistrate judge recommended denial, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed in April 2020, finding there was “no meeting of the minds” between the company and O’Shaughnessy on arbitration.6FindLaw. O’Shaughnessy v. Young Living Essential Oils The case was later transferred to the District of Utah and, based on docket activity through September 2025, remains active.7CourtListener. O’Shaughnessy v. Young Living Essential Oils, LC
Penhall v. Young Living
Lindsay Penhall sued in the Southern District of California in December 2019 with similar allegations: that Young Living “emphasizes recruitment of new members over the sale of products” and that most members lose money.8Truth in Advertising. Young Living Pyramid Scheme Claims The complaint cited company income disclosures showing average member income of $30 in 2015 and $25 in 2016, with more than half of new members earning no commissions at all.9Top Class Actions. Young Living Pyramid Scheme Alleged in Recent Class Action Lawsuits
After transfer to the District of Utah, Judge David Barlow ruled in October 2022 that Young Living had provided adequate notice of a clickwrap arbitration agreement and that Penhall had agreed to it, vacating an earlier order that had denied arbitration.10Justia. Penhall v. Young Living Essential Oils
Federal Criminal Conviction for Trafficking Protected Plants
In September 2017, Young Living pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.
According to the Department of Justice, between 2010 and 2014 Young Living employees and contractors harvested, transported, and distilled roughly 86 tons of Brazilian rosewood in Peru without authorization, then failed to secure the required CITES export permits. The company also bought over 1,100 kilograms of rosewood oil from a U.S. supplier between 2014 and 2016 without adequate due diligence on its legality. Separately, in December 2015, employees exported spikenard oil from Nepal to the United Kingdom without a CITES permit, using a backdated document.11U.S. Department of Justice. Essential Oils Company Sentenced for Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act Violations to Pay $760,000
Sentencing came on September 18, 2017. The company paid $760,000 total: a $500,000 fine, $135,000 in restitution to the Government of Peru, and $125,000 toward conservation of protected plant species. It also received five years of probation requiring a corporate compliance plan, mandatory audits, and public disclosure of the convictions.11U.S. Department of Justice. Essential Oils Company Sentenced for Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act Violations to Pay $760,000
FDA Warning Letters
The FDA has sent Young Living at least two warning letters for marketing its oils as unapproved drugs.
The first, dated September 22, 2014, addressed 12 products including Thieves, Frankincense, Oregano, and ImmuPower. The agency cited claims by Young Living consultants on websites and social media that the oils could treat or prevent Ebola, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, and other serious conditions. One flagged claim asserted that the Ebola virus “cannot live in the presence of cinnamon bark.”12Truth in Advertising. 2014 FDA Warning Letter to Young Living Then-COO Travis Ogden said the company was “cooperating fully with the FDA.”13KSL. Companies Respond to FDA Warning: We’re Going to Meet Every Request
The second letter, dated June 10, 2022, cited consultant claims posted on social media between 2018 and 2021 marketing essential oils and CBD products as treatments for urinary tract infections, arthritis, asthma, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, PTSD, and chronic pain. The FDA specifically flagged a suggestion to apply Frankincense Essential Oil to a newborn’s umbilical cord stump, noting the infection risk. The letter also covered the company’s Nature’s Ultra CBD line, noting that no CBD-containing drug had met FDA requirements for legal nonprescription marketing.14U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Young Living Essential Oils Corporate Warning Letter
The doTERRA Case and Bad-Faith Sanctions
Not every Young Living lawsuit was defensive. In 2012, the company sued its rival doTERRA, founded in 2008 by former Young Living officers and distributors, alleging breach of employment contracts, trade-secret theft, and improper recruitment of Young Living staff. Young Living initially sought more than $300 million in damages.15PR Newswire. Judge Finds Young Living Acted in Bad Faith and Awards doTERRA Nearly Two Million Dollars in Legal Fees and Costs
Judge Christine Johnson of the Fourth Judicial District Court in Provo threw out most of the case in 2014 as untimely. What remained went to trial in May 2017 as a single breach-of-contract claim, with damages reduced from $300 million to $12.8 million and, by trial’s end, to a token $1.16Salt Lake Tribune. Young Living to Cover $1.8M in doTERRA Attorney Fees Following Yearslong Court Battle After an 18-day trial, the jury rejected all of Young Living’s claims against the four individual defendants.17PR Newswire. All Charges Dismissed Against doTERRA and Defendants in Young Living Trial
In July 2018, Judge Johnson ordered Young Living to pay $1.8 million in doTERRA’s attorney fees plus about $50,000 in costs. She found the company had brought its trade-secret claim in “bad faith” and engaged in “knowing falsification of the evidence,” having falsely claimed to recently discover a doTERRA business plan in order to defeat the statute of limitations when forensic evidence showed Young Living had known of the document since 2009 and had tampered with the computer on which it was stored. The judge also imposed spoliation sanctions for destroyed evidence on computers assigned to the defendants.15PR Newswire. Judge Finds Young Living Acted in Bad Faith and Awards doTERRA Nearly Two Million Dollars in Legal Fees and Costs
Who Runs the Company
Founder D. Gary Young died on May 12, 2018, at age 68 after a series of strokes.18PR Newswire. Young Living Founder D. Gary Young Passes Away His wife and co-founder, Mary Young, is CEO. Gary Young’s record before Young Living included a 1983 guilty plea in Spokane for practicing medicine without a license following an undercover investigation into prenatal and cancer-treatment services, and a 1989 settlement with California officials over deceptive advertising and unapproved medical devices. In 1982, his infant daughter died in a whirlpool bath at a Washington health club he operated during an attempted underwater delivery.19Business Insider. Young Living Gary Young Founder Essential Oils The company today reports roughly $1.8 billion in annual revenue and operates exclusively through its multilevel-marketing distribution model.