FAIR TRADING

BBC Worldwide’s

Fair Trading Commitment

The BBC was the first organisation to achieve the ISO 9001:2001 standard for its fair trading practices, demonstrating that fair trading is central to our way of doing business.

In performing its commercial role, BBC Worldwide conforms to domestic and European Competition Law. In addition to abiding by these statutory provisions, and unlike our competitors, BBC Worldwide is subject to further requirements to trade fairly, arising from the BBC’s commitment under the Royal Charter and its accompanying Agreement. These are published as the BBC’s Fair Trading Commitment and require BBC Worldwide to:


• Engage in commercial activities which are consistent with and support the BBC’s role as a public service broadcaster

• Pay fair charges for any goods or services received from other parts of the BBC

• Charge prices which are a fair reflection of both costs incurred and market practice

To ensure new employees understand the importance of fair trading and our obligations, BBC Worldwide runs induction seminars plus a range of ongoing policy training sessions and we have an in-house team of experts to provide guidance

BBC Worldwide along with all other parts of the BBC is audited annually by both an internal and an external team to ensure compliance with the fair trading requirements under the BBC’s Fair Trading Commitment. The following statement has been issued on the BBC’s compliance

Annual Statement on the BBC’s Compliance

with the Fair Trading Commitment

The Governors consider that the policies contained in the BBC’s Fair Trading Commitment are consistent with the requirements of the Royal Charter and the accompanying Agreement. Through the Fair Trading Compliance Committee, they have gained reasonable assurance that the framework of controls and procedures designed to ensure that these policies are applied throughout the BBC has been operating effectively throughout the year.

The BBC has appointed external Fair Trading auditors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who have issued an opinion which concludes that the BBC has established and has applied systems, procedures and internal controls which provide reasonable assurance that it has complied with its Fair Trading Commitment for the year ended 31 March 2002.