Mary Kay Cosmetics Sues Liquidator and Threatens Consultants

Mary Kay Inc., the Dallas-based cosmetics company, quietly filed a civil suit in the Federal District Court of Texas against La Salle, Illinois residents Scott and Amy Weber and their company, Touch of Pink Cosmetics. Touch of Pink resells Mary Kay products on the internet. The suit alleges tortious interference with current and prospective contracts, unfair competition, passing off, and trademark infringement.

Translated from legal-speak, tortious interference means the Webers are accused of inducing current Mary Kay consultants to break their contracts with Mary Kay. Mary Kay also alleges that the Weber's thriving business selling Mary Kay products at a steep discount has deterred and will continue to deter women from signing contracts with Mary Kay.

The 71-page complaint contains a brief statement that may be of interest to any current Mary Kay consultants who are using liquidators to recoup some of the money they sank into hard-to-sell inventory: "Mary Kay requests leave of the court and an order to conduct expedited discovery so that Mary Kay can properly identify the Participating Independent Beauty Consultants, who are also potential defendants in this lawsuit, prior to the preliminary injunction hearing and for purposes of judicial economy." This is what lawyers call a"fishing expedition". Mary Kay wants to rummage around in the Touch of Pink business records to get information they can't get in any other way.

Given that tortious interference is an act that can't be committed between two parties to a contract, and that the alleged trademark infringement is by the Webers, one wonders exactly why these consultant would be defendants? Against which of the complaints? At worst, it would show that they have violated their contract with Mary Kay and the contract would be terminated. Is this meant to intimidate existing consultants who may be tempted to dump unsalable product to recoup some of their money.