How we research claims

Every product and brand page on EthiCompare starts from evidence, not marketing copy. For each listing we look for third-party certifications (B Corp, Leaping Bunny, USDA Organic, Fair Trade, FSC and similar schemes), the brand's own published policies on animal testing, sourcing, packaging and labour, ingredient and material disclosures, and the parent-company structure behind the brand.

Brand profiles additionally record what the company itself states — its animal-testing policy, whether it sells in mainland China, its vegan range and its sustainability pledges — and label those statements as the brand's own words, kept visibly separate from independently verified credentials.

We rank evidence by independence. A current entry in a certification scheme's own public directory is the strongest signal. A brand's published policy page is useful but self-reported. Retailer copy and marketplace descriptions are the weakest and never, on their own, move a score.

Before a newly added brand is published, we check that the brand actually exists and that its public footprint matches what was submitted. Brands we cannot confirm are held back rather than published on speculation. Certification names recorded on a listing tell you the credential was claimed — we always recommend confirming current scope in the scheme's own directory, and our pages say so.

Ownership records come from public acquisition and corporate-structure reporting. Where we hold no ownership record we say exactly that; we never present the absence of a record as proof that a brand is independent.

When a claim cannot be traced to evidence, we do not quietly delete it or treat it as true — we flag it. Product pages show "Unverified" on checklist items we cannot confirm, and scores we cannot support are shown as "Not scored" rather than guessed. A missing certification is displayed as "none on file", which is deliberately different from a failed check: absence of evidence is never presented as evidence of a problem.

The same rule applies to our own content. Editorial text on brand pages is composed only from facts stored in our catalogue — the products we have scored, the certifications on file, recorded policies and ownership records. Where our data runs out, the text says so instead of filling the gap with plausible-sounding copy.

Automated tools help us draft and maintain pages, but statements that assert testing, verification or research we did not perform are corrected or removed when found, and pages carrying them are flagged for review.

Certifications lapse, formulas change and companies are acquired. Brand profiles show the date they were last updated, and our daily refresh jobs revisit the stalest pages so scores and claims do not quietly go out of date.

If you spot something wrong — an expired certification, an outdated ownership record, a claim we cannot support — tell us through the contact page. Corrections that change a score or a verdict are applied to the page, not buried.