My Shopping Genie Review and Profile

My Shopping Genie no longer appears to be active as a direct sales company.

My Shopping Genie is no longer active. The company shut down in May 2012 after reports of unpaid distributor commissions, and its shopping-software assets were subsequently used to launch Shopping Sherlock.

Original Npros business profile for My Shopping Genie, preserved below for archival purposes:

My Shopping Genie was an internet-based network-marketing company launched in late 2007 by MyNetUniverse Inc. The company was led by CEO David Freed, with Andy Cauthen serving as president of MyNet International and Bruce Bise acting as a prominent field leader or master distributor. The operation expanded internationally during 2010, including launches in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and other European markets.

The company's principal product was a downloadable shopping application or browser toolbar that searched participating online retailers for prices and product offers. Consumers could download the Genie without charge, while distributors were encouraged to distribute copies through personalized links. MyNetUniverse received affiliate advertising or sales commissions when users clicked participating merchants' links or completed qualifying purchases, and a portion of that revenue was credited to the distributor who supplied the software. The application functioned primarily as a price-comparison and affiliate-marketing tool rather than selling a proprietary retail product.

Participation in the income opportunity generally required a $199 software or distributor package and a recurring fee of approximately $29 per month. The compensation plan included commissions connected to shopping activity, a 20% override on click revenue generated by personally enrolled distributors, and a $100 bonus when a participant sponsored two new paying distributors. Additional compensation was paid through a two-leg binary organization and was based substantially on the $199 enrollment payments made by new participants. Historical promotional material advertised weekly earning limits reaching $3,000 for Power Distributors and as much as $20,000 at higher leadership ranks.

My Shopping Genie drew public scrutiny because distributor compensation depended heavily on recruiting people who paid for access to the opportunity, while the underlying shopping application was distributed free to consumers. An investigation broadcast by Ireland's RTÉ Prime Time examined the business in 2010, and press coverage reported that Ireland's National Consumer Agency was reviewing whether the program complied with the country's laws governing pyramid promotional schemes. No resulting government enforcement judgment against MyNetUniverse was identified in the reviewed records.

Reports of delayed or unpaid commissions surfaced during 2011, with some distributors claiming that payments had been outstanding for several months. My Shopping Genie closed its offices and ceased operations in May 2012. Its principal software assets were subsequently acquired by Michael Wiedder, who used similar technology and a related compensation structure to launch Shopping Sherlock later that year. MyShoppingGenie.com is now offered for sale and no longer hosts an operating shopping platform or distributor opportunity.