Current human rights discussions increasingly focus on the conditions under which consumer goods are produced in developing and newly industrialised countries. Improving social standards in the producing countries supplying retailers in industrialised nations has therefore become a very important topic on many companies' agendas.

To combat poor social compliance, companies and associations from the retail and industrial sectors have created Codes of Conduct and monitoring systems. These are often based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) core labour conventions.

The Brussels based Foreign Trade Association (FTA) began efforts in 2002 to establish a common platform for the various different European Codes of Conduct and monitoring systems and to lay the groundwork for a common European monitoring system for social compliance. In 2002 and 2003, retail companies and associations held several workshops to determine the framework for such a system. In March 2003 the FTA formally founded the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), for the purpose of developing the tools and procedures for the European Business Social Compliance Programme. The experience and the know-how gained by companies like Lindex, Otto, Migros, Vögele, Inditex and others and the association AVE from their monitoring systems were cornerstones for the development of the management instruments of the BSCI. In the spring of 2004 the development phase was achieved and since then the implementation and broadening of the system is the major task of the parties involved.