a system in which people operate their own businesses selling a company's products and persuade and train other people to do the same. Each person earns commission (= a payment related to the amount sold) on the sales made by the people they recruit (= persuade to work for them).

She is involved with a multilevel marketing firm that sells beauty products.

An illegal pyramid is different from legitimate multilevel marketing because there is no product to be sold as the primary aim of the business. 非法传销不同于合法的多层次直销，因为其并没有产品来作为业务的主要销售目标。