IOCU was founded by Elizabeth Schadee, who would later chair the board of the Netherlands' Consumentenbond, and Caspar Brook, who was the first director of the United Kingdom's Consumers' Association.

[1] The two proposed an international conference to plan for consumer product testing organizations worldwide to work more closely together.

[1] The United States organization Consumers Union provided US$10,000 at the request of Colston Warne to help fund the event.

[1] In 1979, IOCU (which then became Consumers International) and other citizens' groups formed the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN)[2] to eradicate the death and disease affecting millions of babies in economically developing countries as a result of consuming bottle-fed formula milk.

After intense campaigning by IBFAN, including organizing consumer boycotts against the likes of Nestlé,[3] whose subtle yet effective campaigns were undermining breastfeeding,[4] the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization, adopted the International Code of Marketing on Breast Milk Substitutes[5] the first such code designed to control widespread marketing abuses by baby food companies.

At the 41st World Health Assembly in 1987,[7] HAI organised a large lobby of delegates to urge stronger controls on advertising by the drugs industry.