September 20, 2001
U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell has thrown out Amway's case against rival Procter & Gamble and its attornies. The two companies have been suing each other for several years: P&G has filed suit against Amway in Utah and Texas, and Amway sued P&G in Michigan. The claim in this suit was that P&G and their attorneys had conspired with various internet critics, most notably Sidney Schwartz of Oregon.
Now the judge says there was no conspiracy. According to the Grand Rapids Press, "Friday's ruling was a sweeping rebuke of Amway's allegations that P&G was trying to put the Ada-based company out of business."
Two other defendants in the suit were Sidney Schwartz, author of the website Amway: The Untold Story, and Kenneth Lowndes, an outspoken critic who accuses Amway of having stolen from him. Amway was accusing both Schwartz and Lowndes of having been a part of the "conspiracy" with P&G, and additionally of publishing false and misleading information about the company. Schwartz has been dropped from the suit, and Lowndes has seemingly defaulted on a technicality.
A spokesperson for P&G said the case had been "baseless and without merit."