Signing up to the Marketplace Responsibility Principles

The Marketplace Responsibility Principles are a top level framework for companies to use when proactively assessing marketplace strategies. The aspirational principles provide companies with a structure to analyse key issues that can arise while making money, and covers relationships with customers and suppliers, impacts of products or services, and how companies work with the rule makers.

Signing up to the Marketplace Responsibility Principles means two things:

1. The company agrees that the Principles describe a valid approach to managing corporate responsibility in the marketplace, and it aims to incorporate them into how they manage the business.
2. The company makes the practical commitment to reflect the issues covered by the Marketplace Responsibility Principles in its own CSR reporting – following whatever structure and approach the company already uses. It is not a requirement, but we do request that the company reference the Principles in its report to make the public statement of commitment.

What is the process?

Let us know that you’re interested. We can have an initial discussion with you if it would help to clarify any aspects of the Principles you’re not sure of. Once we are clear that you would like to proceed we undertake the following steps;

1. A formal letter from us thanking you for your interest in signing up, and stating what this means.
2. A letter from yourself, signed by your CEO or equivalent, confirming your wish to sign up to the Marketplace Responsibility Principles.
3. At this stage, we carry out a desktop-based review of your existing reporting to provide a baseline from where the company currently is in its progress on marketplace issues. We add the company’s name to the list of those signed up on the public website.
4. That’s it. If it will be helpful to your company to have a follow-on conversation to support how you move forward on some of the marketplace issues, we would be happy to arrange this. There may be more hands-on support we can also provide by negotiation if you need it.

To begin the process email marketplace@bitc.org.uk and let us know you’re interested.