The Better Business Bureau (BBB), founded in 1912, is not a government agency, but a private business franchise of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work together through the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). The BBB goal is to foster a fair and effective marketplace, so that buyers and sellers can trust each other ("Start With Trust"). Many BBB services can be accessed online through their website.

BBBs gather and report information on business reliability, alert the public to frauds against consumers and businesses, provide information on ethical business practices, and act as mutually trusted intermediaries between consumers and businesses to resolve disputes. News media frequently turn to the CBBB and local BBBs as expert sources of news about scams and consumer issues.

History

"Medical quackery and the promotions of nostrums and worthless drugs were among the most prominent abuses which led to the establishment of formal self-regulation in business and, in turn, to the creation of the NBBB."Ladimer, Irving "The Health Advertising Program of the National Better Business Bureau" A.J.P.H. Vol. 55, No. 8. Aug. 1965

BBB's inception has been credited to the court case initiated by the government against a number of firms, including the Coca-Cola Company, in 1906, after the Pure Food and Drug Act had been become law. The trial found the legal charges to be unfounded, and as a result Samuel Candler Dobbs, sales manager of Coca-Cola and later its president, took up the cause of truth in advertising.

In 1909, Dobbs became president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, now the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and began to make speeches on the subject. In 1911, he was involved in the adoption of the "Ten Commandments of Advertising", one of the first codes of advertising developed by groups of advertising firms and individual businesses. Similar organizations in succeeding decades, such as the National Better Business Commission, Inc. of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World (1921), and the National Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (1933) merged to become the Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc in 1946. In 1970, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) was established.

Structure

Local BBBs are independently governed by their own boards of directors, but must meet international BBB requirements, which are monitored and enforced by the CBBB on a continuous basis. The CBBB is governed by leaders of local BBBs, as well as by senior executives from major American corporations, and community leaders such as academics and legal experts.

Each BBB entity is run separately. Businesses that move from one BBB jurisdiction to another may need to apply for BBB Accreditation in the new BBB location unless they have a system wide accreditation.