BJA and NAG call for greater honesty and transparency in trading of diamonds
BIRMINGHAM, England, November 15, 2014 – The issue of diamond over grading has once again come to the fore with the recent release of Martin Rapaport’s “Honest Grading” report.
Simon Rainer, Chief Executive, British Jewellers’ Association.
Distributed to 77,000 worldwide trade members, Rapaport calls the over grading of diamonds by certain laboratories a “significant threat” to the industry that could lead to disgruntled customers demanding refunds from jewellers.
This follows on from Rapaport’s recent decision to ban all EGL grading reports from his online trading platform.
As the UK’s leading jewellery trade associations, both the BJA and NAG are fully supportive of the timely release of Rapaport’s report and now make the call for the UK jewellery industry to define an agreed and common policy for all to abide by in order to provide consumers with greater confidence in the purchase of diamonds.
“Without question, the issue of mis-sold diamonds forms the highest percentage of consumer complaints we receive,” said Simon Rainer, BJA CEO.
“The trade has to find a way of creating greater consistency in the sale of diamonds and diamond grading supported by accepted independent accreditation and monitoring,” he added.
Both the BJA and NAG recognise the need for increased transparency and honesty in the manner in which diamonds are traded and sold to consumers.
“What we are looking for is a code of practice agreed by key industry stakeholders which can easily be adopted by the trade and most importantly, understood by the consumer,” commented Michael Rawlinson NAG CEO.
