Jewelers Vigilance Committee has launched a new membership benefit program called, Web Site Compliance Check. JVC says the new program evaluates JVC members’ Web sites for legal compliance.

The JVC says the feature will help members produce online advertising and marketing campaigns that are in full compliance with the laws, rules, and regulations that apply to catalogue sales, brick-and-mortar stores. It is free of charge to all JVC members and is effective immediately.

“In 2004, JVC received a number of complaints from consumers and trade about faulty online ads for fine jewelry,” said Cecilia Gardner, JVC’s executive director and general counsel. “After reviewing numerous jewelry Web sites, we developed a new compliance program to review the Web sites of prospective JVC members. Clearly, JVC was on to something, so we kept digging. We reviewed jewelry web sites representing a cross-section of the industry and discovered a pattern of common online advertising mistakes, prompting us to offer our new Web site compliance program to all JVC members.

Using the program will allow JVC to identify advertising and compliance problems and explain the proper application of the rules to the Web site.

“Upon competition of the review, members will receive a written report outlining the problems, if any, found on the site,” Gardner said. “Should members require additional guidance, they can schedule a one-on-one consultation for a nominal fee.”

For more information about Web Site Compliance Check and other legal compliance issues, visit www.jvclegal.org.

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