If you’ve been searching this question, you’ve probably seen consultants posting “going out of business” sales on Facebook or YouTube. It looks alarming. But here’s what’s actually happening: those are individual sellers closing their own small businesses, not the company shutting down.
That distinction matters — especially if you’re a current consultant, thinking about joining, or just someone who buys Paparazzi jewelry. This article covers what’s really going on: the company’s current status, the lead and nickel lawsuits, the Washington state settlement, and what all of it means for people with money on the line.
Paparazzi Jewelry Is Still Operating — Here Is What the Record Shows
As of late 2025, Paparazzi Accessories has not filed for bankruptcy. There are no documented mass layoffs, no company-wide closure announcements, and no regulatory shutdown orders. Consultants are still active, products are still being listed and sold, and the MLM network continues to function.
One business analysis published in late 2025 puts it plainly: Paparazzi is “showing every sign of operating normally” and “is not going out of business at this time.”
That said, operating normally and operating without serious problems are two different things. Paparazzi is under real legal and reputational pressure. The company is still open — but it is not business as usual.
Why So Many People Think Paparazzi Is Closing
The confusion mostly comes from social media. When a consultant decides to leave Paparazzi, they often hold a “going out of business” sale to clear out their personal inventory. These posts spread quickly and look, on the surface, like news that the company itself is collapsing.
It’s a reasonable misread. But the comparison to a franchise helps clarify it: if a local burger franchise owner closes their single location, that doesn’t mean the parent brand is shutting down nationwide. The same logic applies here.
A YouTube video from August 2024 shows a consultant explaining exactly why they personally decided to close their Paparazzi business. The video has nothing to do with corporate closure — it’s one person’s decision about their own side income. Facebook groups have similar posts, where consultants announce they’re resigning and liquidating inventory.
These individual exits are real and worth paying attention to — they reflect how many people feel about the business right now. But they are not evidence that Paparazzi the company is shutting its doors.
The Lead and Nickel Lawsuits That Damaged Paparazzi’s Reputation
This is where things get more serious. Starting in 2022, Paparazzi faced multiple class action lawsuits alleging that the company falsely marketed its jewelry as lead-free and nickel-free.
The lawsuits were triggered in part by third-party lab testing, reportedly commissioned by ex-consultants and anti-MLM advocates. According to a January 2022 report cited in court filings, testing found detectable levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and nickel in tested pieces — despite Paparazzi’s marketing claims to the contrary.
Two notable federal cases include Hollins v. Paparazzi, filed in New York federal court, and Gilbert v. Paparazzi. The Gilbert complaint stated that every Paparazzi product tested contained significant amounts of lead or nickel. Plaintiffs in these cases reported reactions including hives, vomiting, and headaches, and alleged both consumer deception and breach of warranty.
It’s important to be precise here. These are allegations made in lawsuits — not final court findings. Some cases have seen procedural dismissals without prejudice, which means plaintiffs were given the opportunity to refile or amend their complaints. The litigation is ongoing and complex, not fully resolved.
What’s not in dispute is the reputational damage. Whether or not every legal claim succeeds, the publicity around these lawsuits made a lot of consultants and customers question what they were actually buying and selling.
What This Meant for Consultants on the Ground
Consider someone who built a small Paparazzi business based on the pitch that the jewelry was affordable and safe. After the lawsuits became public, some of their customers started asking questions. Others stopped buying altogether.
When legal issues at the corporate level hit that directly, it doesn’t matter whether the company survives. The consultant’s business takes the damage either way.
The Washington State Settlement and What It Actually Means
In 2025, the Washington State Attorney General reached a $1.9 million settlement with Paparazzi over alleged pyramid-scheme-style business practices and misleading income claims made to prospective consultants.
As part of the settlement, Paparazzi agreed to modify its marketing and income disclosures, at least within Washington state. The company did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is standard in these agreements.
This is a regulatory penalty and a required practice change — not a shutdown. The closest analogy is a company getting fined for misleading advertising and being forced to change its labels. The business pays the fine, updates its practices, and keeps operating under closer scrutiny.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a minor footnote. A $1.9 million settlement with a state attorney general over MLM income claims is a significant event. It signals that regulators were watching closely and found enough to act on. It also puts pressure on how Paparazzi recruits and what it can promise potential consultants — which has a direct impact on business growth.
Self-Regulatory Scrutiny: The DSSRC Case
Beyond state regulators, Paparazzi has also drawn attention from the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC), an industry body that reviews advertising and income claims made by direct selling companies. The DSSRC’s administrative closure of a case involving Paparazzi Accessories, LLC — a St. George, Utah-based company founded in 2011 — reflects the broader scrutiny the company has faced over how it markets both its products and the income opportunity.
Self-regulatory bodies don’t have the enforcement power of government agencies, but they signal industry-level concern. When the DSSRC and a state attorney general are both paying attention to the same company, that’s not coincidence.
Is Paparazzi a Pyramid Scheme or a Legitimate MLM?
This question comes up a lot. The honest answer is: Paparazzi is an MLM that sells real products, which means it doesn’t meet the legal definition of a pyramid scheme. But regulators, including the Washington AG, raised concerns about how income opportunities were presented to consultants.
MLMs like Paparazzi typically involve buying product wholesale and reselling at a markup, while also earning commissions from the sales of people you recruit. The model is legal. But critics argue — and the Washington settlement reflects — that income claims often paint a rosier picture than what most consultants actually earn.
For anyone evaluating the business opportunity, this matters more than the technical legal classification. The real question is: can you build something sustainable here?
Should You Join, Stay, or Leave? A Practical Risk Assessment
Joining Paparazzi in 2018 was a different calculation than joining in 2025. In 2018, the lawsuits didn’t exist yet. The Washington settlement hadn’t happened. The social media narrative was mostly positive. That’s no longer the case.
Here’s what the current risk picture looks like for consultants:
- Product safety perception: Even if you believe Paparazzi jewelry is safe, customers may have seen the headlines. Overcoming that skepticism takes extra work.
- Recruitment difficulty: When lawsuits and income claim settlements are publicly documented, recruiting new team members becomes harder.
- Regulatory uncertainty: The Washington settlement required practice changes. It’s unclear how far those changes will extend or if other states will follow.
- Ongoing litigation: Some class action cases are still moving through the courts. Future outcomes could affect the company’s finances and marketing claims.
None of this means the business is impossible. But it’s a higher-friction environment than it was a few years ago, and that’s a legitimate factor in any business decision.
An Alternative Worth Considering
Some former consultants have moved toward sourcing jewelry independently from wholesalers who provide clear safety certifications, then selling under their own brand. That path has its own challenges — higher startup complexity, no built-in network — but it removes the reputational and legal baggage attached to a specific company.
For more resources on evaluating business models like this, UrbanBizMag covers practical business decisions across a range of industries.
What Buyers Should Know About Paparazzi Jewelry
If you’re a consumer rather than a consultant, the key question is whether the jewelry is safe to wear. The lawsuits allege that tested products contained heavy metals at levels inconsistent with the company’s marketing claims. Those cases have not been fully resolved.
Paparazzi has not publicly confirmed that its products contained harmful levels of heavy metals, and the litigation is still ongoing. If you have concerns, the practical move is to look for jewelry brands that provide third-party safety documentation — and to watch how Paparazzi updates its marketing claims going forward, especially following the Washington settlement.
The Bottom Line
Paparazzi Jewelry is not going out of business. As of late 2025, the company is still operating, and there’s no public evidence of bankruptcy filings or a planned shutdown. The “going out of business” posts you’ve seen online are from individual consultants closing their personal businesses — not a sign of corporate collapse.
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