BY RANDY TUCKER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Amway Corp. has fired back at Procter & Gamble Co. in a continuing legal battle in which both sides have accused one another of lying to consumers about their practices and affiliations.
Amway filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a Michigan federal court accusing P&G of paying the author of an Internet Web site - www.teleport.com/~schwartz/ - to publish "misleading" information about Amway.
Mike Mohr, Amway's deputy general counsel, said the Web site -- "Amway: The Untold Story" -- contains court documents filed in previous lawsuits against Amway that include unproven allegations against the company and its distributors.
"These documents contain scandalous charges about Amway and Amway distributors, some that are at least 15 years old, without any attempt to verify whether those allegations were ever proven," Mr. Mohr said.
Wendy Jacques, a spokeswoman for P&G, described the Amway lawsuit as an attempt to divert attention from two earlier lawsuits filed by P&G against Amway in Houston and Salt Lake City. The two suits accuse Amway of spreading rumors linking P&G to Satanism.
"Amway attempted to pursue this ridiculous claim in the Utah lawsuit, and the federal court there dismissed the claim," Ms. Jacques said. "This appears to be a desperate move on Amway's part as we continue to advance both our cases against the company and its distributors."
Mr. Mohr said Amway lawyers uncovered the alleged smear campaign while preparing to defend the two P&G lawsuits.
P&G has taken Amway to court seven times since the devil rumors began surfacing in the early 1980s.
