nope, not MLM .... Affiliate junction (also known as Commission Junction last time) works as a middleman to big corporations

your friend as you to join as Publisher, and as a publisher, you refer leads to the corporations through Affiliate Junc (CJ) and you get paid for the leads ...

friends who introduce another friend would get a cut as well some for the first month check .... so if you join under your friend, and you get USD 200 the first month, you friend would get a cut in percentage ...

another thing, not sure whether its still ongoing now, but last time, CJ only wanted really active publishers with websites (kinda remember they do not accept blogs) .... and if you are not active, they will either disconnect your acct or charge you by deducting your remaining balance inside your account