Washington, DC, and Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 14, 2006 - The Council of Better Business Bureaus and Public Trust, NGO/NPO (PTrust), a Tel Aviv-based organization, announced today that they are implementing a cooperative system to handle cross-border marketplace complaints between North America and Israel.
"By working together, our two organizations believe we can provide a substantial benefit for consumers and businesses engaging in cross-border commerce between the United States, Canada and Israel," said Steve Cole, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), which is headquartered outside Washington, DC.
Israel Zilberman, chairman of Public Trust, hopes the agreement will "enhance Israelis' and North Americans' trust and confidence when shopping in one another's marketplace, whether as tourists visiting abroad, sitting in front of their computers and/or shopping with companies that are headquartered abroad."
Public Trust a new non-profit organization incorporated in Israel, headed by Galit Avishai, former head of Israel consumer protection agency, has been established "with a mission to better the consumer culture environment for honest businesses and consumers alike, as is customary in advanced countries in the western world," Mr. Zilberman noted.
The CBBB is a non-profit organization incorporated in the U.S. The first Better Business Bureau was founded in Minneapolis in 1912. Today, the network of BBBs and the CBBB are widely recognized advocates for ethical business and advertising practices in North America.
The new CBBB- PTrust complaint handling system will refer to each organization small business or consumer complaints against businesses located in the regions served by that organization. The complaints must concern marketplace transactions or advertising, and may involve purchases that took place online, by mail or in person.
The system will feature a common complaint format. While CBBB and PTrust will utilize their own eligibility requirements, procedures and rules for attempting the resolution of referred complaints, the two organizations will consult regularly regarding the disposition or progress of the complaints.
Both organizations have committed to protecting the privacy of the complainant. Personally identifiable information obtained through the complaint process will be used to handle the complaint or for research purposes related to the complaint-handling process.
The BBB system has a similar dispute resolution agreement in place with TrustUK and WebTraderUK, for handling disputes between the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, and with Next Generation Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM), to handle e-commerce disputes involving United States and Japanese consumers and businesses.
BBBs have offered dispute resolution services for decades and currently process more than 985,000 complaints each year; approximately 62 percent are filed online. If a business fails to respond to a customer complaint filed with the BBB, that fact is noted in the BBB's report on that company to advise other consumers who are thinking of doing business with that merchant.
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About the Better Business Bureau:
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) system (www.bbb.org) is dedicated to fostering fair and honest relationships between businesses and consumers, instilling consumer confidence and contributing to an ethical business environment, in both the traditional and online marketplaces. The network of BBBs and the Council of Better Business Bureaus provided more than 59 million instances of service to consumers and businesses in 2004. In Canada, the first BBB was founded in 1935, and the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus was established in 1966 as the coordinating body for BBBs in that country.
About Public Trust, NGO:
Public Trust (www.emun.org, www.ptrust.org) was founded with the vision of creating an independent organization that will focus on improving Israel's consumer culture by fostering a healthy and trusting partnership between honest businesses and consumers, and to enable honest businesses to differentiate themselves from those who are not. Public Trust is a non-profit organization, with an assemblage of active institutions, including a "Public Council" made up of leading academic and financial figures, "Seal removal function" headed by former Supreme Court judge, a "Compliant care centre" and "Dispute Resolution" departments. Consumer complaints among other quality control processes become the instrument through which PTrust can correct businesses conduct. The complaints center and a special judicial body were built with this goal in mind.