Better Business Bureau

About

Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau grades North American companies from A+ to F and takes consumer complaints at no charge. More than 360,000 accredited businesses pay dues to their local bureau, and that money keeps the public information free. Critics have pointed at the conflict in that funding for years, and BBB's answer is that dues do not buy a rating or remove a complaint.

BBB is a network of more than 90 independent local bureaus in the United States and Canada, with BBB.org run by the International Association of Better Business Bureaus (IABBB), a 501(c)(6) in Arlington, Virginia. The site holds 5.8 million business profiles and draws more than 200 million visits a year. Consumers filed 1,229,879 complaints in 2025: 79.98% were settled, 18.43% were not and 1.59% could not be pursued. Online retailers and ecommerce drew 42,618 of them, the largest single category. Grades come from a 100-point scale built on seven elements, among them complaint history, time in business, licensing and advertising issues. A+ takes 97 to 100 points and F covers 0 to 59.99. Customer reviews don't count toward the grade, and type of business alone can deduct up to 41 points. Accreditation means meeting eight standards, such as advertising honestly and honoring promises, after at least six months of active selling or a comparable track record. Each bureau sets its own dues: BBB Wisconsin charges $545 a year for 1 to 9 employees, BBB of Greater Maryland $557 for 1 to 6 full-time staff and BBB Midwest-Plains $55 a month for 1 to 3 employees. Mediation and arbitration vary by location, and decisions from informal dispute handling don't bind either side. The organization traces to 1912, when it formed as the National Vigilance Committee during the truth-in-advertising movement. A restructure on June 1, 2019 split the old Council of BBBs, with IABBB serving the local bureaus and BBB National Programs taking the self-regulatory and dispute programs. BBB Scam Tracker was redesigned in July 2026 with ZIP code search and an interactive heat map. In November 2010 BBB apologized for lapses in its vetting that included a rating for Hamas, and Connecticut's attorney general called the system pay for play and the ratings unreliable and suspect. BBB then abandoned the practice of awarding rating points simply for accreditation. It expelled its Los Angeles bureau in 2013 for recurrent noncompliance and a Canadian member bureau in 2024. Jonathan Liebert is interim chief executive of IABBB and Rod Davis chairs the board. IABBB reported revenue of $18,942,883 for 2024, which covers the umbrella body only and not the local bureaus. Its address is 4250 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 600, Arlington, Virginia 22203, and it lists no general phone number.