That's not true. A pyramid scheme, legally, has no product but itself. Those are illegal.

For example, pay me $20 to join my company and you get the right to recruit people for $20!

Amway is essentially exactly the same except they add a product to the mix to get around the law. They still primarily profit from the "employees" rather than customers.

Changing the definition of a pyramid scheme, for the proposes of law enforcement, to something more akin to "profits primarily off employees" is what needs to be done.

> A pyramid scheme, legally, has no product but itself.

There are 0.0% of pyramid schemes with no product.

Because they are illegal. That's what the originals were though.

You pay some amount of money that gets you basically nothing (maybe a few pages of "how to recruit") and that's it.

MLM schemes are distinct in that they actually have a product and that's what makes them legal.

If you have model legislation handy, particularly the specific legal definition of scams like MLM, I'd be very grateful. Otherwise I'll poke around a bit, to see how UK phrased it.