The Chinese government on Thursday ended a seven-year ban on direct-sales businesses, reported USA Today. China's new regulations would allow companies like Amway, Avon and Mary Kay to sell their products directly to sales agents, who can in turn sell those products from home or work. Since the late 1990s, these companies have had to sell their products through retail stores, rather than relying on independent sales agents as they do in the US. The new rules won't allow for pyramid schemes in which agents themselves recruit and collect commissions from other sellers. In the 1990s, riots broke out after these pyramid schemes collapsed, as agents at the bottom rungs lost their savings after paying for products that were never delivered to them.