International Consumer Research & Testing (ICRT) is a global consortium of more than 40 consumer organisations dedicated to carrying out joint research and testing in the consumer interest.
ICRT's principal objectives are to facilitate co-operation between its members and to promote research and testing in the field of consumer goods and services.
In addition, there are numerous other smaller collaborative tests, on a whole range of consumer products from anti-wrinkle creamstoathletic shoes.
Safety has always been a topic of concern to consumer organisations. ICRT members have played a key role in promoting higher safety standards for consumer goods.
All ICRT member organisations act exclusively in the consumer interest. They do not accept advertising and are independent of commerce, industry and political parties. Werner Brinkmann is the German member of the board of ICRT. ICRT works closely with the two other international campaigning consumer organisations, to which many ICRT members also belong:
Member organisations range in size from the largest consumer organisations worldwide with memberships between 200,000 and 7 million to smaller organisations with less than 10,000 members.
ICRT was formally set up as a not for profit association under United Kingdom law in 1990 but it is based on a long tradition of co-operation between independent consumer organisations since the 1960s:[2]
1968 – The first joint tests between the Dutch and Belgian organisations included hairdryers, dishwashers, stereo receivers and model trains. A test of hotels in Majorca was also joined by Germany.
1972 – The name European Testing Group (ETG) was adopted.
1974 – By now twelve organisations were attending ETG meetings including those from The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, UK, France, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and Austria.
1982 – ETG Secretariat moved to London and an increasing number of collaborative tests were carried out each year
1990 – A new organisation – International Consumer Research & Testing was created to formalise the arrangements of the ETG.
1991 – First European Commission (EC)-funded project “Comparative Testing in Europe” completed. This laid the basis for discussion about future ICRT EC-funded comparative testing projects.
1992 – First ICRT Guidelines issued
1996 – ICRT became a founder member of the Euro NCAP crash test programme[3]
