Complaints – ISO 9001, ISO 14001

ISO welcomes the opportunity to address complaints in relation to its management systems standards ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

ISO's objective in addressing these complaints is to encourage and facilitate dialogue between you, as the complainant, and the other parties involved, with a view to finding a mutually beneficial resolution. Nevertheless, ISO does not guarantee a resolution to your complaint, nor does it assume any liability for any consequences arising out of the steps taken to resolve your complaint.

A. Actions to complete before sending a complaint to ISO

Before submitting a complaint, please make sure you have completed the following:

Officially complained to the certified company in question.
If you are dissatisfied with the response from the certified company you should make an official complaint to the certification body, which has issued the certificate to the aforementioned company.
On receipt of an unsatisfactory response from the certification body you should contact the national accreditation body, which accredited the certification body, and make the complaint directly to them. The name of the national accreditation body can be obtained from the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) website, www.iaf.nu.
If you receive an unsatisfactory complaint from the national accreditation body you should then make your complaint to ISO by following the instructions provided in section B.

B. Sending your complaint to ISO

To make a complaint to ISO about ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 please send your complaint and all related information to MSSComplaints@iso.org

In order to help us in addressing your complaint, as much of the following information as possible should be provided:

Your contact details;
Information about the parties that are the subject of the complaint (including contact details, if possible);
Details about your complaint, including a chronology of events (including dates, parties, etc.);
Information about the steps that you have taken to address your complaint

C. Processing of the complaint:

Using the information you provide ISO will attempt to help you work towards a resolution. This may require ISO to contact the parties that you referenced in your complaint or any other body ISO deems appropriate. By submitting your complaint, you hereby authorize ISO to share any parts of the information contained in your complaint, including your name and contact details, to these parties at ISO's entire discretion. If you wish your complaint to remain confidential, you must clearly specify this in your complaint.

An automatic message will be sent to you confirming receipt of your complaint. An update of the progress in addressing your complaint will be sent within 14 days, following which every effort will be made to keep you updated of any significant developments.

In the meantime we encourage you to consult our web site for information about International Standardization, including management systems standards.

D. Further information

Management system standards:

Management system refers to what the organization does to manage its processes, or activities, so that its products or services meet the objectives it has set itself, such as:

satisfying the customer's requirements,
complying with regulations, or
meeting environmental objectives

Management system standards provide a model to follow in setting up and operating a management system. This model incorporates the features on which experts in the field have reached a consensus as being the international state of the art.

Conformity assessment:

Conformity assessment can be defined as all the actions necessary to demonstrate that a management system complies with requirements. When these actions are performed by an independent body, this is referred to as third party certification. The independent body is usually called a certification body (registration body in the USA).

Accreditation is an independent verification that the certification body is competent to perform certifications. The organization performing the accreditation is called an accreditation body. Accreditation is done by an IAF (International Accreditation Forum, www.iaf.nu) member body. ISO is a standards developing organization and is not involved in any way in the implementation of the standards it develops. ISO has no role in certification or accreditation except to develop the standards (CASCO toolbox) to which accreditation and certification organizations should comply.