Consumers Union of United States, Inc.

Consumers Union (CU) is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. The organization was founded in 1936 when advertising first flooded the mass media. Consumers lacked a reliable source of information they could depend on to help them distinguish hype from fact and good products from bad ones. Since then CU has filled that vacuum with a broad range of consumer information. To maintain its independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising and no free samples and employs several hundred mystery shoppers and technical experts to buy and test the products it evaluates.

CU publishes Consumer Reports, one of the top-ten-circulation magazines in the country, and ConsumerReports.org, which has the most subscribers of any Web site of its kind, in addition to two newsletters, Consumer Reports on Health and Consumer Reports Money Adviser. They have combined subscriptions of more than 8 million. All of CU’s work is informed by the more than 1 million readers who respond to our Annual Ballot & Questionnaire, among the largest and most comprehensive consumer studies in the world. In 2008, CU also launched several initiatives, including ConsumerReportsHealth.org and the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, which serve to educate and empower consumers to make more informed health-care decisions and to help change the market.