Who we are The Better Business Bureau of the Southland serves Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and is one of nearly 200 Better Business Bureaus across the U.S. and Canada. We are a private, nonprofit, self-regulatory organization, dedicated to promoting fairness and honesty in the marketplace. When and how we started Back in 1906, the Coca-Cola Company was one of a number of companies hauled into court to answer charges of false advertising.
Nobody really believes it.
Although the charges were eventually determined to be unfounded, truth in advertising became the crusade of Samuel C. Dobbs, Coca-Cola's sales manager and later president. Now, more than 75 years later, truth in advertising remains a primary concern of the Better Business Bureau. But the nation's present-day Bureaus offer many other services to advance the marketplace integrity upon which consumer trust is built. What we do The Better Business Bureau believes that a business community committed to ethical business practices, couples with an educated and informed public, are the keys to fairness and honesty in the marketplace. Although a number of the Bureau's services and benefits are for members only, many are offered to the general public in the interest of education and information.