Certread · the reference set holds 10 standards

What that label actually guarantees

A hangtag can carry six marks and four words that are not marks at all. The useful question is not which one is best — it is how far each one reaches. Photograph the tag and get three columns: what it covers, what it does not cover, and which words are not certifications.

Read a tag See pricing

We report the published scope of each standard. We hold no textile certification, act for no certification body, rate no brand, and verify no certificate.

A stack of blank card hangtags on a dark surface, lit from one side — Every tag in a shop carries a claim. Almost none of them carry a scope.

Instrument 01

How far does this mark reach?

Five stages, fibre to working conditions. Pick a mark and the bar lights what its published documents actually reach. Pick a word off the same tag and nothing lights, because there is no document behind it.

Pick something off a tag

Arrow keys move between options. No account needed.

Fibre

Spinning

Dyeing

Making-up

Social

In scope

GOTS

Global Standard gGmbH · Version 7.0, published 2023

An organic-fibre standard that carries its requirements through the whole processing chain rather than stopping at the field.

The line that matters

The fibre that is not organic. At the 'made with organic' grade up to 30% of the fibre falls outside the organic requirement, and the label does not tell you on the shelf which grade you are holding.

Full scope, both columns

02 · The five stages

A garment passes through five hands

Most marks govern one or two of them. That is not a flaw — a standard written for chemistry was never meant to say anything about a farm. It only becomes a problem when a tag with one mark on it is read as covering all five.

01
Fibre and farming
Where the raw material came from and how it was grown, raised or recovered.
02
Spinning and weaving
Turning fibre into yarn and yarn into cloth, and keeping the certified material separate from the rest.
03
Dyeing and finishing
The chemistry: what goes into the bath, what comes out in the water, what stays in the cloth.
04
Cutting, sewing, trims
The factory that cut and sewed the garment, and the buttons, zips and threads on it.
05
Working conditions
Wages, hours, safety, freedom of association — and at which sites in the chain they were checked.

03 · Three steps

Photograph, read, then check it yourself

The third step is the one nobody else offers, and it is the one that matters. We do not verify certificates. We tell you which body issues them, what kind of number to look for and where that body publishes its register — so the check is yours, with the only people who can actually answer it.

01
Photograph the tag
Hangtag, care label, or both. Several garments in one go on a paid plan.
02
Read three columns
Covers, does not cover, and the words on the tag that are not certifications.
03
Check the number
Where the register is, what to search for, and what the scope line on a certificate means.

04 · What you get

One page you can take into the shop

Below is a card for a tag carrying two marks and two undefined words — an ordinary hangtag. It is rendered here by the same component the product uses, from the same reference set, so what you are looking at is the artefact and not a picture of one.

Two blank hangtags side by side on a dark surface

A coiled blank woven label ribbon, photographed close up

Interpretation card · CR-20260831-02

2 marks · 2 words · marks chosen by hand

GOTS · OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100

Where each mark reaches

Mark	01 Fibre	02 Spinning	03 Dyeing	04 Making-up	05 Social
GOTS	In scope	In scope	In scope	In scope	In scope
OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100	Outside scope	Outside scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Outside scope

Covers

Written into the standard’s published documents.

GOTS

Organic fibre content, at two published grades: at least 95% certified organic fibre for the 'organic' grade, and at least 70% for the 'made with organic' grade.
Restrictions on the chemical inputs that may be used at certified processing stages, with inputs assessed before use rather than only tested for afterwards.
Environmental requirements at certified processing and manufacturing sites, including wastewater discharge, emissions to air, and the handling of waste and sludge.
Social criteria at certified sites, drawn from the core conventions of the International Labour Organization.
A chain of custody: certified material has to stay traceable and separated as it passes through certified spinners, processors, manufacturers and traders.

OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100

Testing of the article against a published list of well over a thousand regulated and restricted substances, including substances covered by REACH, the ECHA SVHC candidate list and, for the relevant markets, CPSIA.
Every component of the article — outer fabric, lining, sewing thread, buttons, zips, prints, coatings and other accessories — not only the main cloth.
Four product classes with different limit values according to how much skin contact the article has, from articles for babies through to furnishing textiles with no skin contact.
Annual re-testing: a certificate is issued for a limited period and has to be renewed against the current year's edition.

Does not cover

Outside the scope of the standard, however the tag reads.

GOTS

The fibre that is not organic. At the 'made with organic' grade up to 30% of the fibre falls outside the organic requirement, and the label does not tell you on the shelf which grade you are holding.
The company as a whole. A certificate covers a certified operation and the articles that ran through it. A business that holds one is not thereby an organic business in everything it sells.
Retail, distribution beyond the certified chain, and everything after you buy the garment.
How long the garment will last, whether it fits, whether it will hold its shape, or how it performs in wear. Durability is not an organic criterion.
The carbon footprint of the article as a number. The standard sets requirements on processing; it does not publish a per-garment emissions figure.

OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100

Whether any fibre in the article is organic, recycled or of any particular origin. Fibre content is simply not part of this test.
Working conditions, wages or hours at any site in the chain.
The environmental impact of production — water use, energy, effluent from the dyehouse. This tests what remains in the article, not what left the factory.
Whether the article is free of every substance. It certifies compliance with published limit values, which is a different statement from 'contains nothing'.
Animal welfare, land use, or the forest a wood-based fibre came from.

Not a certification

On the tag, with no published standard behind it.

“eco”
A prefix, not a standard. There is no published document behind it, no certifying body, no scope and no version.
Ask which stage the word refers to — the fibre, the dyehouse, or the factory — and whether a certificate number exists for it.
“climate neutral”
Not a textile certification. Schemes exist that verify carbon accounting and offsetting behind such claims, but the phrase on a tag does not tell you what was counted, what was left out, or what the offset was.
Ask which emissions scopes were included and what the offset consisted of. Note that from 27 September 2026 EU rules restrict claims of this kind that rest on offsetting.

Check it yourself

Certread does not verify certificates, judge whether a document is genuine, or detect a forged label. This is how you check, with the body that issued it.

GOTS — Every certified operation has a certificate with a licence number, an issuing certification body and an expiry date. The standard's owner runs a public database of certified entities. Search for the supplier or licence number there and read the scope and validity shown on the certificate itself — the scope line is what tells you which products the certificate actually covers.
OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 — The certificate carries a number and an issuing institute. The association operates a public label-check service: enter the number printed on the label and it returns the certificate holder, the article group covered, the product class and the validity date. Check that the article group on the certificate actually matches the thing in your hand.

Every line on this card is laid out in the browser. No image model is asked to draw text anywhere in this product, because a model draws text that looks right and is wrong — and on this card, being wrong is the failure that matters.

05 · The reference set

Ten standards, five stages, one table

Read down a column and you can see which stage almost nothing reaches. Read across a row and you can see how far one standard goes. Neither reading is a ranking: these documents were written to do different jobs, and a row that lights fewer segments is a narrower standard, not a worse one.

Ten certification standards and how far each one reaches across the five stages of a garment’s supply chain.
Mark	01Fibre	02Spinning	03Dyeing	04Making-up	05Social
GOTSGlobal Organic Textile Standard	In scope	In scope	In scope	In scope	In scope
OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100Tested for harmful substances	Outside scope	Outside scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Outside scope
OEKO-TEX MADE IN GREENTested article plus audited facilities	Outside scope	Partly in scope	In scope	In scope	Partly in scope
GRSGlobal Recycled Standard	In scope	In scope	In scope	In scope	In scope
RCSRecycled Claim Standard	In scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Outside scope
OCSOrganic Content Standard	In scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Outside scope
bluesignInput-stream chemical management	Outside scope	Partly in scope	In scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope
RWSResponsible Wool Standard	In scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope	Partly in scope
FSCForest Stewardship Council	In scope	Outside scope	Outside scope	Outside scope	Outside scope
Fairtrade CottonFarm price and premium for cotton	In scope	Partly in scope	Outside scope	Outside scope	Partly in scope

Source — the published documents of each standard, at the version named in its entry below. Standards change; this is not a live check of any individual certificate.

01 · Fibre content

GOTS

Global Organic Textile Standard

Published by Global Standard gGmbH
Version 7.0, published 2023

An organic-fibre standard that carries its requirements through the whole processing chain rather than stopping at the field.

Covers

Organic fibre content, at two published grades: at least 95% certified organic fibre for the 'organic' grade, and at least 70% for the 'made with organic' grade.
Restrictions on the chemical inputs that may be used at certified processing stages, with inputs assessed before use rather than only tested for afterwards.
Environmental requirements at certified processing and manufacturing sites, including wastewater discharge, emissions to air, and the handling of waste and sludge.
Social criteria at certified sites, drawn from the core conventions of the International Labour Organization.
A chain of custody: certified material has to stay traceable and separated as it passes through certified spinners, processors, manufacturers and traders.

Does not cover

The fibre that is not organic. At the 'made with organic' grade up to 30% of the fibre falls outside the organic requirement, and the label does not tell you on the shelf which grade you are holding.
The company as a whole. A certificate covers a certified operation and the articles that ran through it. A business that holds one is not thereby an organic business in everything it sells.
Retail, distribution beyond the certified chain, and everything after you buy the garment.
How long the garment will last, whether it fits, whether it will hold its shape, or how it performs in wear. Durability is not an organic criterion.
The carbon footprint of the article as a number. The standard sets requirements on processing; it does not publish a per-garment emissions figure.

Check it yourself

Every certified operation has a certificate with a licence number, an issuing certification body and an expiry date. The standard's owner runs a public database of certified entities. Search for the supplier or licence number there and read the scope and validity shown on the certificate itself — the scope line is what tells you which products the certificate actually covers.

02 · Chemistry and substances

OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100

Tested for harmful substances

Published by OEKO-TEX Association
Edition revised annually; the year is printed on the certificate

A laboratory test of the finished article and every component on it, against a published list of regulated and restricted substances.

Covers

Testing of the article against a published list of well over a thousand regulated and restricted substances, including substances covered by REACH, the ECHA SVHC candidate list and, for the relevant markets, CPSIA.
Every component of the article — outer fabric, lining, sewing thread, buttons, zips, prints, coatings and other accessories — not only the main cloth.
Four product classes with different limit values according to how much skin contact the article has, from articles for babies through to furnishing textiles with no skin contact.
Annual re-testing: a certificate is issued for a limited period and has to be renewed against the current year's edition.

Does not cover

Whether any fibre in the article is organic, recycled or of any particular origin. Fibre content is simply not part of this test.
Working conditions, wages or hours at any site in the chain.
The environmental impact of production — water use, energy, effluent from the dyehouse. This tests what remains in the article, not what left the factory.
Whether the article is free of every substance. It certifies compliance with published limit values, which is a different statement from 'contains nothing'.
Animal welfare, land use, or the forest a wood-based fibre came from.

Check it yourself

The certificate carries a number and an issuing institute. The association operates a public label-check service: enter the number printed on the label and it returns the certificate holder, the article group covered, the product class and the validity date. Check that the article group on the certificate actually matches the thing in your hand.

03 · Chemistry and substances

OEKO-TEX MADE IN GREEN

Tested article plus audited facilities

Published by OEKO-TEX Association
Edition revised annually; a unique product ID is printed on the label

A traceable product label that combines substance testing of the article with audits of the facilities that made it.

Covers

Substance testing of the finished article, on the same basis as the association's harmful-substances standard.
A requirement that the main production stages were carried out in facilities certified under the association's sustainable-production scheme, which audits environmental management and social conditions at the site.
A per-article traceability identifier: the label carries an ID that resolves to the production stages and countries involved.

Does not cover

Fibre origin. It does not say the fibre is organic, recycled, or from any particular source.
Stages of the chain that were not part of the certified production route. The traceability record shows which stages were included — read it rather than assuming it covers all of them.
Animal welfare and land management.
Any statement about the brand that sells the article; the label attaches to the article and its production route.

Check it yourself

The label prints a product ID. Enter it in the association's public label-check service, which returns the production stages and the countries they took place in. Read which stages are listed: the ones that are not listed were not covered.

04 · Recycled content

GRS

Global Recycled Standard

Published by Textile Exchange
Version 4.0, with the implementation manual at 4.2

A recycled-content standard that also carries processing, chemical and social requirements through the certified chain.

Covers

Verified recycled input: a minimum of 20% recycled material for a certified product, and a minimum of 50% for the consumer-facing label.
A chain of custody documenting the path certified material takes through every stage of the supply chain.
Environmental requirements at certified processing sites.
Restrictions on chemicals used in processing certified products.
Social requirements at certified processing sites.

Does not cover

The remaining material. Nothing is claimed about the share that is not recycled — it may be anything.
Whether the finished garment can itself be recycled at the end of its life. This is a standard about what went in, not about what happens after.
A carbon or water figure for the article.
Fibre farming or animal husbandry, which do not arise for recycled input.
Retail and the use phase.

Check it yourself

Certified sites hold a scope certificate, and a specific shipment is backed by a transaction certificate. Ask the seller for the scope certificate number and check it in the certification body's or the standard owner's public register. A scope certificate covers a site and product categories; a transaction certificate covers a shipment. They are not interchangeable.

05 · Recycled content

RCS

Recycled Claim Standard

Published by Textile Exchange
Version 2.0

A content-and-traceability standard. It verifies how much recycled material is in the product and that it really travelled through the chain.

Covers

Verified recycled content, from a minimum of 5% for a certified product, with the consumer-facing label at 50% and above.
A chain of custody through certified sites, so the recycled input can be traced to the finished article.

Does not cover

Chemical requirements in processing. Unlike some other recycled-content schemes from the same owner, this one addresses content and traceability only.
Environmental requirements at processing sites — effluent, emissions, energy.
Social requirements at any site in the chain.
The non-recycled remainder of the material.
End-of-life recyclability of the finished garment.

Check it yourself

As with other Textile Exchange standards, ask for the scope certificate number of the certified site and check it in the public register of the certification body named on it. The percentage claimed for a specific delivery sits on a transaction certificate, not on the scope certificate.

06 · Fibre content

OCS

Organic Content Standard

Published by Textile Exchange
Version 3.0

Verifies the amount of organically grown material in a product and tracks it through the chain. It stops there, on purpose.

Covers

The percentage of organically grown material in the finished product, verified against the input.
A chain of custody from the certified organic farm's transaction certificate through each certified site to the final product.
Two label grades: 'blended' from 5% content, and '100' where the content is 95% or above.

Does not cover

Anything about processing chemistry. Dyes, auxiliaries and finishes are outside the scope of this standard.
Environmental requirements at processing or manufacturing sites.
Social requirements at any site.
The remaining material in a blended product.
Any claim that the finished article is safe, durable or free of residues.

Check it yourself

Ask the seller for the scope certificate of the last certified site and the transaction certificate for the delivery, then check the scope certificate number in the register of the certification body that issued it. The transaction certificate is what carries the percentage for that particular batch.

07 · Chemistry and substances

bluesign

Input-stream chemical management

Published by bluesign technologies ag
System and criteria at version 3.0

Works at the input end: which chemical products may enter the mill at all, rather than testing the cloth afterwards.

Covers

Assessment and approval of chemical products before they enter the production process — the system calls this input-stream management.
Requirements at production sites covering storage, processing and discharge of chemicals.
Water and air emissions from certified production sites.
Resource productivity at certified sites.
Occupational health and safety for workers handling chemicals at certified sites.
Consumer safety criteria for the resulting articles.

Does not cover

Fibre origin. Nothing is said about organic, recycled or any other fibre claim.
Wages, working hours, freedom of association or collective bargaining. The worker criteria here are health and safety around chemicals, not the full set of labour rights.
Animal welfare and land management.
Every part of a finished garment. A product-level claim depends on how much of the article came from approved materials and certified sites — read the specific claim, which states a percentage.
Farming, harvesting and the ginning or scouring of raw material.

Check it yourself

Approved chemical products, materials and production sites are listed by the system operator, and product-level claims state a percentage of approved material. Ask the brand which claim applies to the article and at what percentage, then look up the named site or material in the operator's published finder.

08 · Animal and land

RWS

Responsible Wool Standard

Published by Textile Exchange
Version 2.x, with the animal welfare criteria in the published standard

A farm-level standard for wool: how the animals are treated, how the land is managed, and how the fibre stays traceable afterwards.

Covers

Animal welfare criteria on certified farms, assessed against the published requirements in the standard.
Land management criteria on certified farms.
Social welfare criteria for the people working on certified farms.
A chain of custody from the certified farm to the last business-to-business transaction, so the certified wool can be traced to the article.

Does not cover

The chemistry downstream. Scouring, dyeing and finishing of the wool are not governed by this standard.
Working conditions in the spinning mill, the dyehouse or the garment factory.
Fibres other than the certified wool in a blended article. A blend can carry a certified-wool claim for the wool share only.
Whether the garment is durable, warm, or free of residues.
Anything about the brand that sells the article.

Check it yourself

Certified farms and processors hold scope certificates, and specific deliveries are backed by transaction certificates. Ask the seller for the scope certificate number and check it with the certification body named on the document. The percentage of certified wool for a given article sits on the transaction certificate.

09 · Forest

FSC

Forest Stewardship Council

Published by Forest Stewardship Council
Forest management and chain-of-custody standards, current published versions

A forest standard. On a garment it usually refers to the wood pulp behind a fibre such as viscose, lyocell or modal.

Covers

Management requirements for the certified forest the wood came from, including protection of water quality and of high conservation value areas, and requirements covering the rights of workers and local communities in the forest.
A chain of custody tracing the wood or pulp through certified processing and trading businesses.
Three published claim types — from certified forests, from recycled material, and a mixed category — which mean different things and are printed differently on the label.

Does not cover

The chemical process that turns wood pulp into a fibre. Dissolving-pulp chemistry and the solvent recovery in a viscose or lyocell plant are outside the scope of a forest standard.
Dyeing and finishing of the resulting fabric.
The garment factory: no requirements on cutting, sewing, wages or hours there.
Any fibre in the article that is not wood-based.
Water and energy use in fibre production.

Check it yourself

Every certificate holder has a code, usually printed near the mark in the form of a licence code. The council publishes a searchable database of certificate holders. Look up the code and read which claim type and which products the certificate covers.

10 · Social and trade

Fairtrade Cotton

Farm price and premium for cotton

Published by Fairtrade International
Fairtrade Standard for Fibre Crops, and the Trader Standard

A trading standard aimed at the farm: a minimum price, a premium paid to the producer organisation, and requirements on how the fibre is traded.

Covers

A minimum price paid to certified producer organisations for the seed cotton, plus a premium paid on top for the organisation to invest.
Standards for certified producer organisations covering labour conditions on the farm, including restrictions relevant to forced and child labour, and requirements on agrochemical handling.
Requirements on the traders who buy and sell the certified cotton, including traceability documentation.

Does not cover

The mill and the factory. A cotton claim of this kind is about the fibre and its trade, not about wages or hours where the garment was cut and sewn — a separate textile standard from the same organisation exists for that and is a different certification.
Dyeing, finishing and chemical restrictions in processing.
Whether the cotton is organic. That is a separate certification and the two are not the same claim.
Environmental performance of the mill.
The remaining fibres in a blended article.

Check it yourself

Certified producer organisations and licensees are listed publicly by the labelling organisation, and products carry a licence reference. Ask the brand which licence the article is sold under, then check that reference against the published lists. Note whether the claim refers to the fibre-crop standard or to the separate textile standard — they cover different things.

Instrument 02

Which of these is a certification?

Twelve tokens off garment hangtags. Six have a published document behind them and six do not. Most people get two or three wrong, which is the entire argument for this product made faster than any sentence could make it.

Saying a word is not a certification is a fact about the word. It is not a claim that anyone using it is misleading you, and you will not find one anywhere on this site.

Pool — 12 left

Drag a token, or select it and choose a tray, or focus it and press 1 or 2.

Is a certification

A published standard, a version, a body that issues it, a number you can check.

Empty.

Is not a certification

A word. No published criteria, no scope, no version, nothing to check.

Empty.

Nothing filed yet. Every token above appears on garment hangtags.

07 · Where we stop

Four things this will never do

Listed here rather than buried in the terms, because a tool that is vague about its own boundary has no business explaining anyone else’s.

01
We hold no textile certification
Certread is an information tool. It does not manufacture textiles, so it neither holds nor needs any textile certification, and it does not represent or speak for any certification body.
02
We report published scope, not our opinion
Every line in a reading is the scope written in that standard's own published documents. We do not rank standards against each other and we do not tell you which one is worth more.
03
We do not rate brands
No brand rankings, no product recommendations, no buying advice, and no accusation — direct or implied — that any company is misleading you. We say only that a word is not a certification. That is a fact about the word.
04
Standards change
A reading reflects the published version we referenced, not a live check of the certificate on the garment in your hand. Every reading names the version and tells you how to verify the number yourself.

08 · Pricing

Free is enough for one garment

Eight readings a month covers the occasional question. Paying buys the thing free cannot give you: unlimited readings, no watermark, a print-ready card, and several marks compared side by side. That is what the shop trip needs — the person this tool is actually for is comparing six garments before buying one.

The free card is watermarked across the header and the “Covers” column only. It is never placed over “Does not cover” or “Not a certification” — obscuring those to sell a subscription would make the free tier actively misleading, which is the one thing this product cannot be.

Free

USD0

inkl. MwSt. · 50 units

For the one tag you are holding right now.

Read

USD9/mo

inkl. MwSt. · 420 units

For the shop trip where you compare six things before you buy one.

Rail

USD27/mo

inkl. MwSt. · 1600 units

For a whole rail: buying, sourcing, or working through a wardrobe.

Full pricing, allowances and cancellation

Three subscription tiers. No credit packs, no stored balance, no carry-over. Prices in US Dollars (USD). Subscriptions renew automatically and can be cancelled at any time in your account, in the same number of steps it took to subscribe.

09 · Questions

Including the two we have to say no to

Can you tell me which brand is the most environmentally friendly?

No, and this is the one thing we will never do. Certread reads marks. It does not rate, rank or score companies, and it does not recommend products or tell you what to buy.

The reason is not modesty. A mark has a published document behind it that says what it covers, so reporting that scope is checkable. A brand does not: any ranking would be our judgement about a company, presented as if it were a finding. We would rather be useful about the label in your hand than authoritative about something we cannot show you the source for.

What we can do is give you the boundary of every mark on the tag, so you can decide for yourself what it is worth to you.

Is this certificate genuine? Can you check it for me?

No. We do not verify certificates, we do not judge whether a label is authentic, and we do not detect forgeries. If a reading ever appears to confirm a specific certificate, it is being read wrongly.

What every reading includes instead is a verify-it-yourself line: which body issues the certificate, what kind of number to look for, and where that body publishes its register. Certificate numbers are checked with the body that issued them, and only they can tell you whether a document is current.

One thing worth knowing when you do check: most registers show a scope on the certificate. The scope is the part that says which products and which sites the certificate actually covers, and it is where a claim most often turns out to be narrower than the tag suggests.

The tag says 'eco' and 'conscious'. Are those certifications?

No. Words like eco, conscious, natural, sustainable and responsibly sourced have no published criteria, no scope, no version and no certifying body. Nothing was checked against them because there is nothing to check against.

That is a fact about the word, and it is as far as we go. It is not a claim that anyone using the word is misleading you — a company may well be doing everything the word suggests. It simply means the word is not evidence of it.

Since 27 September 2026, EU rules restrict generic environmental claims of this kind in commercial practice, which is a good reason to expect them to be replaced by named standards over time.

What happens to the photographs I upload?

They are used to produce your reading and nothing else. Your uploads are not used to train models — not ours, not anyone's — and they are not sold, licensed or shared for any purpose other than delivering the service you asked for.

Photographs are kept for 30 days so you can reopen a reading, then deleted automatically. You can delete any reading immediately from your account, and deleting your account removes the uploads with it. The full detail, including the legal bases, is in the Datenschutzerklärung.

Please do not upload photographs in which people are recognisable. A tag is what we need.

How accurate is this, and what happens when it is wrong?

The recognition step reads a photograph, and photographs of small woven labels in shop lighting are genuinely hard. It can misread a mark, miss one, or fail on a worn label. Every reading shows you what it thinks it recognised so you can correct it before the card is made.

The scope text is the published scope of the named standard, at the version stated on the reading. Standards are revised. A reading is not a live check of the certificate on the garment in front of you, and it never becomes one.

So treat a reading as a starting point for your own check, not as a compliance record. It must not be used as evidence of compliance, to endorse a commercial claim, or to make a public accusation against a company. Those limits are set out in the Nutzungsbedingungen.

How do I cancel, and do I get a refund?

You cancel in your account, in the same number of steps it took to subscribe, with no reason required and without writing to anyone. The plan then runs to the end of the period you have already paid for and stops.

As a consumer you also have a 14-day right of withdrawal. For a digital service it can end early, but only if you gave both express declarations at checkout and we confirmed them to you on a durable medium. If you did not, you keep the full 14 days. Details and the model withdrawal form are on the Widerrufsrecht page.

We do not operate a blanket refusal of refunds. If we billed you in error or the service did not work, write to support and we will put it right.

What is the allowance, and can I buy more?

The allowance is permission to use the service during the billing period it belongs to. It is not money, not a balance and not redeemable: it cannot be bought separately, topped up, cashed out or transferred.

There are no credit packs. Unused allowance expires at the end of the period rather than carrying over. If you keep running out, move to a larger plan — the change takes effect immediately.

A follow-up question costs 1, recognising a tag costs 2, and generating or re-laying-out an interpretation card costs 5.

Is there an age requirement?

Yes. Certread is for people aged 18 and over. Accounts are not offered to minors, and we do not knowingly process the data of children.

If you believe a minor has created an account, write to support and we will close it and delete the data.

Why don't you show the actual certification logos?

Because those symbols are the trade marks of the bodies that own them, and reproducing them without a licence would be an infringement. It would also imply an endorsement that does not exist.

So marks appear here as their names, set in our own typeface, alongside neutral geometry we drew. Nothing on this site is a certification body's artwork, and nothing on this site should be read as coming from one.

Are you certified? Do you speak for any certification body?

No to both. Certread is an information tool. It does not manufacture textiles, so it neither holds nor needs a textile certification, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for any certification body or standard owner.

Standard names are used here descriptively, to identify the document whose published scope is being reported.

A dense rail of neutral-coloured garments in a cool-lit interior

The tag in your hand says six things. Find out how many of them were checked.

Read a tag Support, refunds and cancellation

What the mark covers, from its published documents.
What it does not cover, which is the half nobody prints.
Which words on the tag are not certifications at all.

What that label actually guarantees

How far does this mark reach?

GOTS

Fibre and farming

Spinning and weaving

Dyeing and finishing

Cutting, sewing, trims

Working conditions

Photograph the tag

Read three columns

Check the number

Covers

Does not cover

Not a certification

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Covers

Does not cover

Check it yourself

Is a certification

Is not a certification

We hold no textile certification

We report published scope, not our opinion

We do not rate brands

Standards change

Free

Read

Rail

Can you tell me which brand is the most environmentally friendly?

Is this certificate genuine? Can you check it for me?

The tag says 'eco' and 'conscious'. Are those certifications?

What happens to the photographs I upload?

How accurate is this, and what happens when it is wrong?

How do I cancel, and do I get a refund?

What is the allowance, and can I buy more?

Is there an age requirement?

Why don't you show the actual certification logos?

Are you certified? Do you speak for any certification body?

The tag in your hand says six things. Find out how many of them were checked.