DTC Sustainability Marketing Examples: Boost Trust &

Name: Defacto Labs Verification Badge & Widgets
Brand: Defacto Labs

June 11, 2026 23 min read

Explore top sustainability marketing examples for DTC brands. Build trust, boost conversions, & prepare for the EU Green Claims Directive 2026.

You're probably in the same place a lot of ecommerce teams are right now. The brand has sustainability language across ads, packaging, and product pages, but when legal asks for substantiation, the room gets quiet. Marketing has messaging. Product has partial documentation. Compliance has concerns. Nobody's fully sure whether “eco-friendly,” “better for the planet,” or “clean” would survive regulator scrutiny or even a skeptical customer clicking around your PDP.

That tension is getting harder to ignore. One industry source frames it clearly: consumer demand is strong, but follow-through is fragile. Provenance notes that 65% of consumers say they want to buy from sustainable brands, while only 26% actually do, and 81% of shoppers want businesses to be environmentally conscious in advertising and messaging. In practice, that means slogans don't close the gap. Proof does.

The next phase of sustainability marketing examples won't be won by prettier leaf icons or broader promises. They'll be won by brands that can show evidence where buying decisions happen, especially on the product page. That matters even more as brands prepare for the EU Green Claims Directive and a more aggressive enforcement climate around vague environmental language.

Below are 10 sustainability marketing examples that go beyond feel-good storytelling. Each one shows how to turn verification into a growth asset, a trust asset, and a compliance asset at the same time.

1. Third-Party Lab Testing, Verification Badges & Certifications
- What strong execution looks like
- Where brands get this wrong
2. EU Green Claims Directive Compliance & Substantiation
- What changes now
- What substantiation looks like in practice
3. Ingredient Transparency & Full Disclosure Strategy
- Full disclosure beats broad claims
- How to make transparency usable
4. Conversion Rate Optimization Through Trust Signals & Test Data
- Trust has to show up in high-intent moments
- What usually converts better
5. AI & Search Engine Optimization for Tested Queries
- Structure the proof so machines can read it
- Why this matters more now
6. Content Marketing Around Lab Testing & Verification
- Education is part of the marketing
- What works better than polished brand copy
7. Customer Service Reduction Through Pre-Purchase Transparency
- The product page should absorb common objections
- Why this matters commercially
8. Competitive Differentiation Through Transparency vs. Vague Claims
- The strongest contrast is evidence versus ambiguity
- How to build that into positioning
9. Transparency Reports & Public Commitments to Accountability
- Accountability beats broad storytelling
- What to include
10. Retail & B2B Partner Trust-Building Through Lab Data
- What buyers actually want
- Why this helps beyond compliance
Sustainability Marketing: 10-Point Comparison
Your Next Step Building a Verifiable Brand

1. Third-Party Lab Testing, Verification Badges & Certifications

The fastest way to make sustainability marketing more credible is to stop asking shoppers to trust your copy and start showing independent proof. On product pages, that usually means recognized certifications, test summaries, and direct access to supporting documents.

This works because shoppers don't evaluate every claim equally. They scan for shortcuts. A USDA Organic badge, a Non-GMO Project mark, or a third-party test result gives them a faster answer than a brand manifesto buried on the About page.

What strong execution looks like

Supplement and wellness brands already understand this pattern. They often use certification marks like NSF or USP to support quality claims, while food and beverage brands use residue, contaminant, or potency testing to support more specific product assertions. In sustainability marketing examples, the same logic applies. If you claim responsible sourcing, low-impact ingredients, or cleaner production, put the evidence next to the SKU, not in a campaign video.

A useful reference point is Defacto Labs' explanation of third-party testing, which breaks down why independent verification matters more than self-attested claims when a buyer is trying to judge safety, quality, or environmental credibility.

Practical rule: If a claim affects willingness to buy, the proof belongs on the PDP.

Where brands get this wrong

Too many teams treat certifications as packaging decoration. They add a logo, but they don't explain what it verifies, when it was issued, or where the customer can inspect the underlying evidence. That's weak marketing and weak compliance.

A better setup includes:

Recognizable badges: Use marks customers already understand, but only when the certification is applicable to that product.
Readable summaries: Add a plain-English line explaining what the testing or certification covers.
Accessible documentation: Link to certificates, lab summaries, or batch-level records where appropriate.
Operational discipline: Track renewal dates so expired credentials don't stay live on your site.

The best sustainability marketing examples don't just display proof. They make proof easy to interpret.

2. EU Green Claims Directive Compliance & Substantiation

A lot of brands still treat compliance as the final review step. For sustainability claims, that's too late. If the evidence doesn't exist before the campaign is written, marketing is already exposed.

The smarter move is to build substantiation into claim creation itself. Every environmental assertion should map to a file, a method, and an owner. If you can't point to the supporting record quickly, the claim isn't ready.

What changes now

The pressure isn't theoretical. Brands selling into Europe need to assume that unsupported environmental language will receive more scrutiny, not less. Claims like “natural,” “low impact,” “responsibly made,” or “chemical-free” sound harmless, but they create risk when the underlying standard is undefined or undocumented.

That's why I'd treat the EU Green Claims Directive guidance from Defacto Labs as an operational brief, not a legal footnote. The primary work is internal. Audit your current copy, identify which statements need evidence, and build a claim file for each one.

What substantiation looks like in practice

For a food brand, that might mean linking “organic” or residue-related language to test records and certification paperwork. For skincare, it may involve ingredient traceability and formulation documentation. For plant-based products, it may require more careful support if broader sustainability language appears in ads, packaging, or retailer copy.

The weak version of sustainability marketing says, “We care.”
The strong version says, “Here is what we tested, verified, documented, and can defend.”

Unsupported sustainability language creates two problems at once. It raises compliance risk and lowers buyer trust the moment someone looks closer.

When teams handle this well, compliance stops being a drag on growth. It becomes a filter that improves the quality of the marketing itself.

3. Ingredient Transparency & Full Disclosure Strategy

Some of the best sustainability marketing examples are also the least flashy. They tell the customer exactly what's in the product, where it came from, and what was checked before it shipped.

That matters because vague sustainability language often collapses under basic scrutiny. Buyers want to know which ingredient is recycled, which input is certified, which component was tested, and whether the sourcing story is current or recycled from last year's brand deck.

Here's a simple visual cue many brands can learn from:

Several glass jars filled with colorful dried herbs and spices arranged on a white marble surface.

Full disclosure beats broad claims

If you sell supplements, protein powders, tea blends, skincare, or packaged foods, full disclosure is a commercial asset. Customers with dietary restrictions, allergy concerns, or ingredient sensitivity already inspect labels closely. Sustainability-minded buyers do the same thing. They just ask a different set of questions.

One overlooked benchmark comes from a study on Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited. The study reports that 90% of surveyed customers endorsed the company's eco-friendly product composition, 65% recognized its fair trade commitment, but only 34% perceived its environmental education efforts as effective. That gap is useful. Product proof can land well while the explanation layer still underperforms.

How to make transparency usable

A long ingredient list alone isn't enough. Customers need interpretation.

Show complete inputs: Publish full ingredient or material disclosure, not selective highlights.
Explain sourcing: Add short notes on origin, processing, or why a material was chosen.
Pair detail with evidence: Connect ingredients to relevant testing, certifications, or specification sheets.
Keep it current: Old sourcing language erodes trust fast when customers notice inconsistencies.

The brands that do this well don't sound more ethical. They sound more precise. Precision is what buyers trust.

4. Conversion Rate Optimization Through Trust Signals & Test Data

Most sustainability messaging fails at the exact moment it matters most. The customer lands on the PDP, likes the product, hesitates at the claim, and leaves to compare alternatives.

That's why trust signals need placement strategy, not just existence. A buried PDF is technically proof. It's not good merchandising.

Trust has to show up in high-intent moments

Put certifications, test badges, and concise verification language where shoppers are making the decision. Near the product title, price, quantity selector, or add-to-cart zone usually works better than a separate sustainability tab no one opens.

Patagonia's “Don't Buy This Jacket” is still one of the clearest lessons in evidence-based messaging. The campaign quantified the jacket's footprint as 6 gallons of water, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, and waste equal to two-thirds of the jacket's weight, and the message still coincided with a 30% sales increase. The point isn't that every brand should copy the anti-consumption posture. The point is that specificity can outperform softer claims.

Here's the visual principle in action. The proof should feel native to the buying flow:

A smiling man pointing at a verified product bottle shown on his laptop screen.

What usually converts better

Short labels near the CTA: “Third-party tested” or certification names work when paired with a way to inspect details.
Expandable proof: Let interested shoppers click into full documents without forcing everyone into a deep dive.
Freshness cues: Include the date of the latest testing or verification when relevant.
Plain-language tooltips: Explain why the proof matters instead of assuming shoppers know the acronym.

A lot of teams think conversion and compliance pull in opposite directions. In practice, clearer substantiation often removes the exact uncertainty that blocks checkout.

5. AI & Search Engine Optimization for Tested Queries

Search behavior is getting more verification-oriented. Buyers don't just search for products anymore. They search for products that are tested, certified, residue-checked, or independently verified.

If your evidence only exists as an image, a PDF, or a sentence inside a carousel, search engines and AI systems may not understand it. That limits discoverability even when the proof exists.

Structure the proof so machines can read it

Many sustainability marketing examples often fall short. They focus on storytelling and design but ignore structured data. If a product has a certification, test date, or auditable claim, encode that information in machine-readable markup where possible.

That means using clear product attributes, structured certification references, and consistent naming conventions across the PDP, feed data, and supporting documents. It also means avoiding vague claim language that no model can interpret with confidence.

Why this matters more now

AI systems increasingly summarize products for users. They compare alternatives, answer follow-up questions, and look for explicit evidence. A page that says “eco-conscious” gives them almost nothing to work with. A page that clearly identifies verified materials, test-backed attributes, and named certifications gives them much more.

Search visibility is no longer just an SEO copy problem. It's a data formatting problem.

The ecommerce upside is practical. Better structured evidence can support discovery for higher-intent queries, improve recommendation confidence, and reduce the gap between what your brand knows internally and what external systems can surface.

If your team is already investing in sustainability substantiation, don't stop at compliance files. Publish it in a format that both shoppers and machines can understand.

6. Content Marketing Around Lab Testing & Verification

Content does its best work when it explains the proof, not when it repeats the claim. That's especially true in sustainability marketing, where customers often understand the headline but not the evidence behind it.

A brand that publishes “we care about sustainability” content sounds like everyone else. A brand that explains how its testing works, what a certification covers, and where a claim has boundaries sounds more credible immediately.

A useful format is video, especially for categories where testing or sourcing can feel abstract:

Education is part of the marketing

There's a real content gap here. Study.com's overview of green marketing examples highlights campaigns, cause partnerships, and packaging changes, but it doesn't explain how brands should present auditable product-level evidence in ecommerce. That's the opening.

If you're in supplements, food, beverage, or skincare, your best educational content often includes:

Testing explainers: Break down what was tested and why it matters.
Certification guides: Clarify what a badge does and does not guarantee.
Batch or sourcing stories: Show how verification fits into production, not just promotion.
Claim boundaries: State what you can prove and avoid implying more.

What works better than polished brand copy

Brands usually overinvest in campaign language and underinvest in interpretation. Customers don't need another mission statement. They need context.

A short article on why you test every batch, an annotated certificate, or a simple video with a lab partner can do more for trust than a glossy Earth Month landing page. Content should translate evidence into understanding. When that happens, sustainability marketing becomes less sentimental and more persuasive.

7. Customer Service Reduction Through Pre-Purchase Transparency

Support inboxes are one of the best sources of truth in ecommerce. If customers repeatedly ask whether a product was tested, what a certification means, or how a claim is verified, your PDP isn't doing enough work.

Sustainability marketing can become operationally efficient, not just persuasive. The more pre-purchase uncertainty you remove, the fewer repetitive tickets your team has to answer manually.

The product page should absorb common objections

Start with your actual support logs. Pull the recurring questions tied to sustainability, quality, and sourcing. Then answer them directly on the product page, ideally close to the claim that triggered the question in the first place.

That can include short FAQs, downloadable spec sheets, test summaries, batch lookup tools, or direct links your support team can reuse in chat and email responses.

Why this matters commercially

When shoppers ask, “Is this really tested?” or “What does responsibly sourced mean here?” they're already close to buying. If your team answers quickly, you might save the sale. If the page answers before they ask, you remove friction entirely.

I've seen brands overcomplicate this by building separate education hubs while leaving the PDP thin. Usually the opposite order works better. Fix the product page first. Then expand the knowledge base once you know which answers people need.

A support ticket about a sustainability claim is usually a merchandising problem disguised as a service problem.

Strong sustainability marketing examples don't just attract attention. They reduce doubt before doubt turns into abandonment.

8. Competitive Differentiation Through Transparency vs. Vague Claims

A lot of brands still compete on adjectives. Premium. Clean. Conscious. Responsible. Better-for-you. Better-for-the-planet. When everyone uses the same language, nobody stands out.

Verification gives you a sharper position. Not “we care more,” but “we can prove more.”

The strongest contrast is evidence versus ambiguity

This is especially useful in crowded DTC categories where shoppers compare tabs quickly and don't read brand narratives in full. If your competitor says “sustainably made” and you show named certifications, test-backed attributes, or claim-specific documentation, the comparison gets easier for the buyer.

That's one reason the best-known sustainability marketing examples are still so memorable. Growfish highlights Patagonia's long-running pledge of 1% of sales to preserving and restoring the environment since 1985, and Levi's “Water<Less Jeans” claim of up to 96% less water than traditional jeans. Those examples differ in style, but both pair messaging with a concrete commitment or metric.

How to build that into positioning

A practical model is to audit competitor claims and classify them by proof level. Which claims are specific? Which are broad? Which appear unsupported? Then reshape your messaging to make the difference visible without drifting into reckless callouts.

For ecommerce teams, Defacto Labs' roundup of DTC brands using credible product-quality marketing is a useful prompt. The pattern is consistent. Buyers respond when brands replace hype language with inspectable evidence.

Lead with named proof: Certifications, test types, and traceable records are more defensible than general value statements.
Use side-by-side clarity: Show your substantiation process, not just your promise.
Justify premium pricing: Transparent proof often gives sales and support teams a stronger answer than branding alone.

The market is full of vague sustainability claims. That's an opportunity for any brand willing to be more specific.

9. Transparency Reports & Public Commitments to Accountability

A transparency report can be one of the strongest sustainability marketing examples a brand publishes, but only if it contains evidence people can inspect. Too many reports read like polished annual letters with a sustainability theme. They look serious and say very little.

The useful version is narrower and more operational. It documents what was tested, what standards were used, what changed, and where the company still has work to do.

Accountability beats broad storytelling

There's a known gap in the category. MarketVeep's discussion of sustainable marketing campaigns notes that many examples lean on broad storytelling and legacy campaign creativity, while the tension between anti-consumption messaging and growth goals remains underexplored. A transparency report can close that gap by tying message to operating reality.

For a DTC brand, the first report doesn't need to be massive. It can focus on a few concrete areas: product testing coverage, sourcing disclosures, certification status, packaging changes, claim review process, and retailer-ready substantiation.

What to include

Claim inventory: Which sustainability claims are currently live across site, packaging, and paid media.
Verification status: Which claims are backed by third-party tests, certifications, or documented internal controls.
Known limitations: Where evidence is still incomplete or under review.
Update cadence: A public commitment to refresh the report on a set schedule.

This format does two things well. It creates internal pressure to maintain standards, and it signals to buyers and partners that the brand is willing to be examined.

A report should make your marketing team more disciplined next quarter, not just more congratulatory about the last one.

10. Retail & B2B Partner Trust-Building Through Lab Data

Retail buyers and distributors hear sustainability promises all day. What gets their attention is documentation they can take to their own compliance, merchandising, and category teams.

That changes the sales conversation. Instead of pitching aspiration, you pitch proof. For wholesale and retail partners, that's often much more useful.

Here's the commercial context visually:

A professional man and woman in business suits shaking hands over a desk with a portfolio.

What buyers actually want

Retailers need confidence that the product claims on shelf talkers, PDPs, and category pages won't create downstream problems. Distributors want materials they can circulate internally without rewriting everything. Marketplace teams want a clear substantiation package if a claim gets challenged.

That usually means building a clean sales folder with certificates, test records, specification sheets, claim language, and a simple explanation of what each proof point supports.

Why this helps beyond compliance

Verified sustainability claims can strengthen assortments, retailer relationships, and onboarding speed because they remove ambiguity. A buyer doesn't need to decode your brand voice. They need to know whether your product claims are supportable and easy to merchandise responsibly.

This is also where honest brands can outmaneuver louder competitors. If your sales team can walk into a meeting with organized substantiation while another brand shows mood boards and broad environmental copy, you make the buyer's job easier.

In B2B settings, sustainability marketing examples that win are rarely the most emotional. They're the most defensible.

Sustainability Marketing: 10-Point Comparison

Item	Implementation Complexity 🔄	Resource Requirements ⚡	Expected Outcomes 📊	Ideal Use Cases ⭐	Key Insight / Tips 💡
Third-Party Lab Testing, Verification Badges & Certifications	High, long audits, supply-chain alignment	High, recurring lab fees, certification costs	Strong trust signal; higher conversion and retail access	Regulated categories, premium brands, retail entry	Start with top SKUs; publish machine‑readable reports and track recertification
EU Green Claims Directive Compliance & Substantiation	High, regulatory substantiation and auditable trails	High, LCAs, third‑party verification, documentation systems	Avoid fines; EU market access and first‑mover advantage	Brands selling in EU or making environmental claims	Audit claims now; implement data management and third‑party audits
Ingredient Transparency & Full Disclosure Strategy	Medium‑High, ingredient‑level testing and traceability	High, per‑ingredient analysis and documentation overhead	Increased trust, fewer returns, content opportunities	Health‑conscious, allergy/diet-sensitive customers	Publish spec sheets, use interactive sourcing diagrams, update regularly
Conversion Rate Optimization Through Trust Signals & Test Data	Medium, A/B testing and UX placement work	Medium, CRO tools, design and maintenance effort	10–25% conversion uplift; reduced cart abandonment	DTC ecommerce and high‑consideration products	Place badges near CTAs, show test dates, A/B test placement and wording
AI & Search Engine Optimization for "Tested" Queries	Medium, technical schema and markup workflows	Medium, developer time and monitoring	Better search visibility, AI/assistant recommendations	Brands prioritizing SEO/AI discoverability	Implement JSON‑LD/schema, include method and date, monitor Search Console
Content Marketing Around Lab Testing & Verification	Medium, editorial planning and production	Medium, writing, video, and periodic updates	Long‑term authority, organic traffic growth	Brands building expertise and long decision journeys	Create pillar content, publish explainers and case studies; update as standards change
Customer Service Reduction Through Pre‑Purchase Transparency	Low‑Medium, page content + support alignment	Medium, content creation, chatbot/support training	30–50% fewer quality‑related tickets; lower support costs	Products with frequent pre‑purchase questions	Map top inquiries to product pages; train support to link lab data
Competitive Differentiation Through Transparency vs. Vague Claims	Medium, competitor audits and comparative content	Medium, ongoing testing to maintain edge	Defensible market position; premium pricing potential	Crowded categories where trust differentiates	Run claim audits, publish side‑by‑side comparisons and verified badges
Transparency Reports & Public Commitments to Accountability	High, cross‑functional reporting and verification	High, data aggregation, third‑party sign‑off, PR effort	Deep consumer and investor trust; PR opportunities	Brands seeking institutional credibility and investors	Publish clear metrics, involve third parties, provide executive summaries
Retail & B2B Partner Trust‑Building Through Lab Data	Medium, package documentation for buyers	Medium, sales collateral, batch docs, staff training	Increased buyer confidence and distribution wins	Brands pursuing retail or wholesale partnerships	Build sales packages with certs and batch reports; train sales to lead with data

Your Next Step Building a Verifiable Brand

The biggest shift in sustainability marketing isn't aesthetic. It's evidentiary. Brands are moving from mood-based environmental messaging to claim-based proof, and that's a much healthier place for ecommerce to compete.

The old model was simple. Write broad copy, add green design cues, mention your values, and hope the customer fills in the gaps. That still happens, but it works less well with informed buyers, stricter platforms, and growing regulatory pressure. It also creates internal friction. Marketing wants speed. Compliance wants substantiation. Product and quality teams sit in the middle trying to reconcile both.

The better model is more durable. Start with the claim. Ask what the statement means, what evidence supports it, where that evidence lives, and how a customer will inspect it without leaving the buying flow. If you can answer those questions cleanly, the marketing usually gets stronger, not weaker.

That's why the most useful sustainability marketing examples aren't always the flashiest campaigns. They're the ones that make a claim easy to verify. Patagonia is still discussed because it paired message with specifics. Levi's stands out because the water claim was concrete and legible. Product-level transparency studies are useful because they show another truth: proof and education are not the same thing. A brand can have good product substance and still explain it poorly.

For DTC and ecommerce teams, the practical path is straightforward.

First, audit your current claims. Pull language from product pages, paid ads, email, retail listings, packaging, and social. Circle every statement that implies environmental benefit, sourcing quality, lower impact, cleaner production, or broader responsibility. Then separate what's verified from what's merely asserted.

Second, prioritize by commercial importance. Start with top-selling SKUs, top traffic pages, and claims closest to conversion. If a sustainability message is helping sell the product, that's where proof should show up first.

Third, publish evidence in a usable format. A customer needs a simple explanation. A retailer needs documentation. A search engine or AI system needs structure. One internal PDF buried in a shared drive does nothing for any of them.

Fourth, train the team. Customer support should know how to answer claim questions. Growth teams should know which statements need review before launch. Creative teams should understand that verification isn't a buzzkill. It's a performance tool.

The brands that pull this off won't just avoid greenwashing accusations. They'll build stronger PDPs, tighter retailer relationships, better internal discipline, and more trust at the exact point where trust matters most.

Platforms like Defacto Labs fit into that shift because they help brands turn lab data into customer-facing proof instead of leaving it trapped in back-office files. That's the key opportunity now. Not louder sustainability marketing. Better-substantiated sustainability marketing.

If your team needs a practical way to turn lab results, certifications, and claim substantiation into conversion-ready proof, Defacto Labs is built for that job. It helps DTC brands publish verifiable test data directly on product pages, make claims easier for customers and AI systems to evaluate, and prepare for stricter scrutiny without slowing down growth.

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Key questions about dtc sustainability marketing examples: boost trust &.

Table of Contents

1. Third-Party Lab Testing, Verification Badges & Certifications

2. EU Green Claims Directive Compliance & Substantiation

3. Ingredient Transparency & Full Disclosure Strategy

Some of the best sustainability marketing examples are also the least flashy. They tell the customer exactly what's in the product, where it came from, and what was checked before it shipped.

4. Conversion Rate Optimization Through Trust Signals & Test Data

Most sustainability messaging fails at the exact moment it matters most. The customer lands on the PDP, likes the product, hesitates at the claim, and leaves to compare alternatives.

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We may offer a free plan with limited features, usage limits, or functionality, which we can change, restrict, or discontinue at any time, at our sole discretion, with or without notice. Free-plan access may be terminated or suspended by us at any time for any reason. Free-plan users are subject to all provisions of these Terms, except that: (a) we have no obligation to provide any minimum level of service on the free plan; (b) the Services are provided “as is” and “as available”, and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all liability arising from or related to your use of the free plan; and (c) we may require you to display Defacto branding on any widgets, badges, or outputs generated while on the free plan.

5. Free trials

We may offer free trials of paid plans for limited periods, as set out in the commercial materials or on our website at the time. We may modify, restrict, or withdraw a free trial at any time, at our sole discretion, with or without notice, and with no liability. Unless we tell you otherwise in writing, if you have provided payment details at the start of the trial, you will be automatically charged for the applicable paid plan at the end of the trial period unless you cancel before the trial ends.

5A. Beta and early-access features

From time to time we may make beta, pilot, preview, early-access or experimental features available to you (“beta features”), labelled as such in the Services or in our communications. Beta features are provided “as is” and “as available”, are still in development, and may contain errors or change in functionality. We may modify, suspend or withdraw any beta feature at any time, with or without notice, and with no liability. Beta features are excluded from any service commitments, support obligations, warranties or other commitments that apply to our generally available services, and your use of them is at your own discretion and risk. Feedback you provide on beta features is governed by the Feedback section of these Terms.

6. Subscriptions

If you subscribe to a paid plan (a “subscription”), the following applies:

Subscription period: Subscriptions are prepaid and run for the period shown in your commercial materials (typically monthly or 12 months).
Auto-renewal. Your Subscription automatically renews at the end of each billing cycle for a successive period of the same length, at the then-current price. To prevent renewal, you must cancel via your account dashboard or provide written notice at least 30 days before the end of the current billing cycle. If you fail to cancel within this notice period, the renewal is binding and non-refundable. We may update pricing at any time; continued use after a renewal constitutes acceptance of the updated pricing.

Usage limits and overages. Each plan includes defined usage limits (for example, number of verified SKUs, verified lab results, widget impressions, or active products). If your usage exceeds the limits of your current plan, we may, at our sole discretion: (a) automatically upgrade you to the next pricing tier that covers your usage, billed at that tier from your next billing cycle; or (b) charge overage fees at the per-unit rates published on our pricing page or otherwise communicated to you. We will notify you before a tier upgrade takes effect. Overage fees are invoiced in arrears and due within the standard payment terms set out in these Terms.
Renewal pricing: At the end of your current subscription period, your renewal price may increase by up to 5%. We’ll show the applicable renewal price in your renewal reminder. If we plan a larger increase, we’ll give you notice at least 30 days before your renewal date, and you can cancel before the renewal takes effect if you don’t want to continue at the new price.

7. Partners

You may also access our services or purchase a subscription through an authorised Defacto partner (a “partner”) - for example, a reseller, agency, lab, or consulting firm. Partners are independent of us and have no authority to make commitments, grant rights, or give guarantees on our behalf. Any terms agreed between you and your partner (including professional services or third-party products supplied by them) are separate from and do not form part of these Terms. If you have purchased through a partner, you may be required to pay your partner rather than us; if your partner fails to pay us for your subscription, we may suspend or terminate your access.

8. Acceptable use and prohibited conduct

You may only use our services for domains you have claimed and only in line with your plan. You agree to use our services only for lawful business purposes and in line with these Terms and our guidelines. In particular, you must not (and must not permit anyone else to):

create an account, brand profile or other identifier using the name, trademark, or identity of any other person or entity without their authorisation;
upload, submit, or verify products or content you do not own, control, or have written authority to manage;
impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
undermine the security, integrity, availability or performance of our services or platform;
attempt to gain unauthorised access to our services, any related systems, or any account, server, computer or database connected to our services;
introduce, upload, or transmit any virus, worm, trojan, logic bomb, ransomware, spyware, or other malicious or harmful code;
launch, assist, or participate in any denial-of-service or distributed denial-of-service attack, automated probe, load test, or penetration test against our services without our express prior written consent;
modify, copy, adapt, reproduce, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, or extract the source code of any part of our services, except to the minimum extent expressly permitted by mandatory applicable law;
resell, transfer, licence, lease, sublicense, or otherwise commercially exploit our services in any way not expressly permitted under these Terms;
remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notice, watermark, brand mark, or metadata appearing on or in our services;
use our services in a way that is defamatory, deceptive, misleading, fraudulent, threatening, harassing, discriminatory, or otherwise unlawful.

Any breach of this section may be a material breach of these Terms and may also constitute a criminal offence under applicable law, including the Lithuanian Criminal Code and equivalent legislation in other jurisdictions (such as the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). We may report suspected offences to the relevant authorities and cooperate fully with any investigation.

9. Guidelines

When using our services you agree to follow our guidelines, policies and codes published at defactolabs.com/legal (the “guidelines”). The guidelines are designed to keep our platform a fair and trustworthy place. We may update them from time to time; changes apply immediately.

10. Your Content

You retain full ownership of the Certificates of Analysis (“CoAs”), lab reports, product information, logos, brand names, images, and other materials you upload or make available through the Services (“Your Content”). Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of Your Content to us.

To operate the Services on your behalf, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, process, display, reproduce, and distribute Your Content as reasonably necessary to provide, maintain, and improve the Services - including displaying verification results on your product pages, on our platform, and through integrated third-party channels (such as search engines and retail partners). This licence includes the right to sublicence to trusted service providers who help us deliver the Services. This licence is perpetual with respect to any Content that has been made public through the Services, and terminates for all other Content upon removal by you or termination of your account.

If you remove Your Content or close your account, we will take reasonable steps to remove it from active use, though cached or archived copies may persist for a limited period in accordance with our data retention practices.

You represent and warrant that:
(a) you have all necessary rights and permissions to share Your Content with us and to grant the licence above;
(b) Your Content is accurate, complete, and not misleading;
(c) any CoAs you upload are genuine, were issued by the named laboratory, and correspond to the specific product formulation they are linked to; and
(d) you will promptly notify us if a product formulation changes, a CoA is withdrawn, or you become aware of any inaccuracy in the data we have reviewed or verified.

11. Intellectual property

All intellectual property rights in our platform and services - including the design, compilation, and look and feel of our platform and services, all copyrighted works, registered and unregistered trademarks, designs, source code, inventions, the traffic-light verification mark, the Defacto name, logos and other identifiers (together, “our brand marks”) - are the property of Defacto or our licensors. Except as expressly permitted in these Terms, no right or licence is granted to you in relation to any of the above, and you may not copy, distribute, modify or create derivative works from any of our content or use our intellectual property without our prior written consent.

You retain your intellectual property rights in your logo, brand name, trademarks and other identifiers (“your IP”). For the duration of your use of our services, you grant us and our affiliates the right to use your IP for the purposes of providing, administering and operating our services, our platform and related systems, and performing our rights and obligations under these Terms.

12. Display of names, logos and verifications

We need to identify the brands that are verified through Defacto. You give us the right to display your brand name and logo on our platform to identify the products you verify. You control your brand profile and can update your name and logo at any time.
When you create a business account and use our services, you allow us to use your name, logo and examples or visuals of how you use Defacto in the ordinary course of business in our corporate, promotional and marketing materials (for example on our website, in decks, in case studies and in ads). If you’d rather we didn’t, email [marketing@defactolabs.com] and we’ll stop.
While you’re using our services, you may display your verifications and our brand marks on your claimed domains, as long as you follow our guidelines and only use the designs, widgets, images and functionality we make available to you.

Any other use of our brand marks is only permitted in line with our guidelines. We reserve the right to revoke your use of our brand marks at any time if we find your use breaches our guidelines.

12A. Verification mark use and consumer-facing wording

You must use Defacto badges, widgets, verification marks and public-page wording only in the forms and contexts we make available or approve through the Services, our Verification and Badge Use Policy, our brand guidelines or written instructions.

You must not use any Defacto badge, widget, verification output, report, public verification page or brand mark in a way that suggests Defacto has approved, certified, endorsed, tested, manufactured, guaranteed or confirmed the safety, efficacy, legality, regulatory compliance, quality, marketability or suitability of any product, except to the limited extent expressly stated in the relevant verification output.

Consumer-facing wording must clearly communicate the scope of the review. For example, where applicable, wording should refer to “Lab evidence reviewed by Defacto”, “CoA reviewed by Defacto”, “Label accuracy evidence reviewed”, “Heavy metals test reviewed”, “Microbiology test reviewed” or another scoped wording approved by Defacto, rather than implying that the entire product is universally safe, fully compliant or broadly approved.

You must not use wording such as “Defacto approved”, “Defacto certified safe”, “Defacto compliant”, “Defacto quality approved”, “Defacto guarantees this product”, “Defacto confirms this supplement is safe”, “Defacto medically verified” or any similar phrase unless we expressly authorise that wording in writing.

Public verification pages and widgets may identify the relevant product, batch or lot number, sample or report reference, lab name, lab test date, Defacto verification date, tests reviewed, claims reviewed, verification status, downloadable CoA or report summary, and any other information reasonably necessary to make the scope of the verification clear.

12B. Badge misuse enforcement workflow

If we become aware, or reasonably suspect, that you have misused a Defacto badge, widget, verification mark, public verification page, report, screenshot or other Defacto output, we may apply the workflow below. We may skip any step where the misuse is serious, repeated, fraudulent, unlawful, likely to mislead consumers, likely to create regulatory risk, or likely to harm Defacto, consumers, laboratories or other customers.

Intake and evidence capture. We may capture and retain screenshots, URLs, metadata, ads, emails, product pages, marketplace listings, social posts, packaging references or other evidence showing the suspected misuse.

Initial classification. We may classify the issue by severity, including: low-risk presentation error; unclear or incomplete scope wording; unsupported broader claim; altered or misleading badge; expired, suspended or withdrawn verification still being displayed; false claim of Defacto approval, certification, safety guarantee or regulatory compliance; or suspected fraud.

Notice and cure period. Where appropriate, we will notify you and request correction, removal or clarification. Unless urgent action is required, we will usually provide a reasonable cure period. Minor wording issues may receive up to five business days to cure; higher-risk misuse may require immediate correction.

Temporary protective action. We may temporarily suspend, hide, de-list, watermark, modify or disable the affected badge, widget, verification page, API response or public output while the issue is reviewed or corrected.

Review and resolution. We may require you to provide updated documentation, corrected labels, revised claims, proof of removal, replacement CoAs, batch information, or other evidence needed to resolve the issue. We may re-review or reclassify the verification before restoring any badge or public page.

Escalation. If misuse is not cured, or if we consider the misuse serious, we may withdraw the verification, revoke badge rights, suspend or terminate access, require deletion or correction of misleading materials, notify relevant platforms or partners, and pursue any remedies available under these Terms or applicable law.

Recordkeeping. We may keep internal records of misuse reports, evidence, communications, corrective actions, decisions and repeat incidents for compliance, trust and safety, audit, legal and platform-integrity purposes.

13. Feedback

We appreciate any feedback you give us about our services and platform, and we may use it forever without restriction or payment to you. If you give us feedback, we may use, quote or refer to it at our discretion.

14. Monitoring and moderation

We have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor, review, screen, verify, re-verify, investigate, edit, correct, withdraw, suspend, de-list, or remove any of your content or any content displayed through our services, at any time and without notice to you, for any reason, including compliance with these Terms, our guidelines, applicable law, or the protection of our other customers or end users. Our exercise (or non-exercise) of this right does not make us responsible or liable for your content or for any failure to identify issues in it.

Third-party products

Integrations with products and services provided by others.

15. Other services

To help you get more out of Defacto, we may make integrations available to third-party products (for example, Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, email and marketing tools, labs and independent software vendors). These providers are independent of us. They may have their own terms, privacy notices and fees. We don’t guarantee that integrations will continue to be available or that our services will remain interoperable with any third-party product.

16. Third-party terms

Third-party products are subject to their providers’ terms and privacy notices. It’s your responsibility to review and accept those. We don’t endorse or assume responsibility for third-party products regardless of how they are described, and we’re not liable to you for them. You use them at your own risk and agree to resolve any disagreement about a third-party product directly with the provider.

Pricing and payments

Fees and billing.

17. Fees, taxes and standard pricing

Current plans, features and prices are shown on our website and may be updated from time to time. Any discounts, promotions, offers or special terms listed on a quote or order form apply only for the subscription period specified on that document; we’re not obliged to continue offering them for later periods. Our prices are exclusive of VAT and other applicable taxes, which you’ll pay in addition where required by law.

18. Authorisation to charge and billing cycle

By submitting your payment information and subscribing, you authorise us (or our payment processor, Stripe or another we select) to charge your selected payment method the applicable subscription fees and any overage, upgrade or add-on fees in advance on a recurring basis, without the need for further authorisation, until you cancel.

Monthly subscriptions are billed monthly in advance.
Annual subscriptions are prepaid for the full term.
One-time setup or professional services fees (if any) are invoiced on the effective date.
Invoices paid by bank transfer are payable within 14 days of the invoice date.

19. No refunds

All fees are non-refundable, except as required by law, expressly stated in these Terms, or expressly stated in the applicable commercial materials at the time of purchase. If we offer a money-back guarantee on our pricing page or in a written offer, that guarantee applies only according to its stated conditions. Unless we state otherwise, any first-time money-back guarantee applies only to the first paid subscription purchased directly from Defacto, does not apply to renewals, enterprise contracts, partner purchases, custom services, setup fees, professional services, misuse, breach of these Terms, or usage that exceeds plan limits, and must be requested before the guarantee period expires. This includes fees for unused portions of a subscription period if you cancel mid-period or if we terminate for your breach. If we terminate for our material breach or permanent unavailability of the services, we’ll refund the unused prepaid portion.

20. Failed payments and continuing liability

If a charge to your payment method fails, we’ll retry it automatically over the following days and email you so you can update your payment details or get in touch with us - most payment issues are resolved this way. A failed charge does not reduce, suspend or defer what you owe us. The subscription remains active, the services remain available to you, and the full subscription fee remains due and payable in full.

If we can’t resolve the payment together within 7 days of the due date, in addition to any other rights we have under these Terms or by law, we may (acting at our discretion and in any combination):

immediately accelerate the entire unpaid balance for the remainder of your current subscription period so the full amount becomes due and payable at once;
charge default interest as set out below, accruing from the original due date, not from the date we first try to collect;
refer the unpaid amount to a debt collection agency or external counsel for recovery, at your cost;
take any other action available to us at law to recover the amount owed.

If payment is more than 30 days overdue we may, in addition, suspend or terminate your access to paid services - but doing so does not release you from paying in full for the whole of your current subscription period, whether or not you continue to use our services.

21. Late payment, interest and collection costs

We’d much rather resolve a billing issue with you than charge interest - if you’re having difficulty paying, contact us at [billing@defactolabs.com] as early as possible. That said, on any overdue amounts we may, without needing to send a reminder or put you in default: (a) charge default interest at the highest rate permitted under Lithuanian law for late commercial payments (currently 8 percentage points above the European Central Bank reference rate under the Lithuanian Law on Prevention of Late Payment in Commercial Transactions), accruing daily from the due date until paid in full; (b) charge the statutory fixed recovery amount (currently EUR 40) for each late invoice; and (c) recover all reasonable costs of collecting unpaid amounts, including collection agency fees, external legal fees, court costs, bailiff fees, and costs of any enforcement action - all of which are additional to the unpaid amount and any interest. We may also report overdue amounts to credit reference agencies and refer your account to a debt collection agency where legally permitted. Payments you make will be applied first to costs and interest, and only then to the principal amount owed.

22. Disputed invoices

If you believe an invoice is incorrect, you must notify us in writing at [billing@defactolabs.com] within 15 days of the invoice date, providing the reason and supporting detail. If you don’t, the invoice is deemed accepted. Disputing an invoice in good faith doesn’t release you from paying the undisputed portion by the due date.

23. Chargebacks

If you initiate a chargeback or payment reversal against us without first contacting us to resolve the issue, we may treat it as a material breach and immediately suspend or terminate your account. You remain liable for the full amount owed, plus any chargeback fees and administrative costs we incur.

Privacy, data protection and security

Processing of personal data, governed by our Privacy Policy and DPA.

24. Privacy laws

You and we each agree to comply with all applicable data protection and privacy laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, “GDPR”), the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and U.S. state privacy laws (including the California Consumer Privacy Act / CPRA, and equivalent laws in other states), each as amended from time to time. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data.

25. Data Processing Agreement

Where we process personal data on your behalf, our Data Processing Agreement (“DPA”) applies and is incorporated into these Terms by reference. You can request it at [privacy@defactolabs.com] or download it from our website. If there’s any conflict between these Terms and the DPA in relation to the processing of personal data, the DPA prevails.

26. Security

We do what we can to keep your data secure, and we need your help too. You agree to keep your login details secure, not share them, and use strong security on your own systems. If you notice any unauthorised use of your password or breach of security, tell us right away. You also agree not to use free-form fields in our services to store personal data, unless the field is explicitly asking for it.

Confidential information

27. Keeping things confidential

You and we may share confidential information with each other while using our services. Both of us agree to take reasonable steps to protect the other’s confidential information from unauthorised access or disclosure. Either of us may share confidential information with legal, governmental or regulatory authorities if required to, and we may share yours on a similar confidential basis with our affiliates, advisers, auditors, financiers, and parties carrying out due diligence on our business. Information is not confidential if the recipient already knew it, if it becomes publicly available other than through a breach of this section, or if it’s independently developed without reference to the other party’s information. For the avoidance of doubt, platform activity data is not your confidential information.

Search discovery, automated access and restricted uses SEO, GEO, public-page crawling, and platform protection

28. Public-page crawling for search and AI discovery

We want Defacto to be discoverable through reputable search engines, AI search services, browser assistants, and other public discovery tools. Nothing in these Terms prohibits reputable search engines, AI search services, browser assistants, or similar discovery services from crawling, indexing, retrieving, previewing, summarising, or citing publicly available pages of our website, public verification pages, public badges, public documentation, public educational content, or other content that we intentionally make public, provided that such access complies with our robots.txt file, sitemap, crawler instructions, rate limits, technical controls, and applicable law.

This permission is limited to search, discovery, indexing, retrieval, preview, summarisation and citation of public pages. It does not allow access to dashboards, accounts, APIs, admin areas, private customer data, non-public verification materials, unpublished CoAs, restricted documentation, or any part of the Services that is not intentionally made public.

29. Reservation of rights and AI training opt-out

All rights in the Defacto platform, services, data, marks, widgets, source code, APIs, documentation, dashboards, verification pages, category insights, benchmarks, platform activity data, and every other element of or output produced by the platform and services (together, the “Defacto Materials”) are reserved. Except for the limited public-page crawling permission above, no right to use the Defacto Materials for text or data mining, scraping, crawling, automated extraction, machine learning, artificial intelligence training, fine-tuning, benchmarking, model evaluation, embeddings, dataset creation, or competing-product development is granted, implied, or to be inferred from any part of these Terms, from any public availability of the Defacto Materials, or from your access to or use of our services.

For the purposes of Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, and for the purposes of any equivalent text and data mining exception under any other law anywhere in the world, we reserve our rights and opt out. The Defacto Materials are not available for text or data mining, AI model training, fine-tuning, model improvement, embeddings, benchmarking, dataset creation, or competing-product development, unless we expressly authorise such use in writing.

30. Prohibited automated access and restricted uses

You must not, and must not authorise, instruct, encourage, enable, assist, or permit any other person, entity, automated system, agent, contractor, affiliate, bot, crawler, scraper, model, or AI system to do any of the following, whether directly, indirectly, in whole or in part:

access, search, index, copy, reproduce, cache, collect, harvest, extract, compile, aggregate, monitor, scrape, or systematically copy any Defacto Materials except as expressly permitted under the public-page crawling permission above;

access, crawl, retrieve, query, scrape, monitor, or extract dashboards, customer accounts, APIs, admin areas, private customer data, non-public verification materials, unpublished CoAs, restricted documentation, or any non-public part of the Services;

carry out, facilitate, authorise, or permit bulk extraction, database creation, dataset creation, data harvesting, competitive intelligence, benchmarking, product comparison, directory creation, or systematic copying of Defacto Materials;

use any Defacto Materials as input, training data, fine-tuning data, reinforcement-learning data, embeddings data, retrieval-augmented generation data, validation data, test data, benchmarking data, or any other form of input for the development, training, pre-training, fine-tuning, alignment, evaluation, grounding, benchmarking, improvement, or operation of any artificial intelligence model, large language model, machine learning model, neural network, generative model, classifier, or similar system;

use any Defacto Materials to build, train, improve, enhance, evaluate, benchmark, or operate any product, service, feature, data set, model, system, widget, badge, verification tool, ranking, benchmark, or directory that competes with, substitutes for, or replicates any part of our services or Defacto Materials;

reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decrypt, or attempt to derive the source code, structure, algorithms, models, weights, scoring logic, verification logic, or underlying ideas of any Defacto Materials, except to the minimum extent expressly permitted by mandatory applicable law;

bypass, disable, interfere with, or attempt to circumvent any technical, rate-limiting, authentication, robot-exclusion, crawler-instruction, or access-control measure we use to limit access to the Defacto Materials, including robots.txt directives, CAPTCHAs, rate limits, IP blocks, API keys, authentication, paywalls, or usage limits;

redistribute, resell, sublicense, syndicate, republish, make available to the public, or commercially exploit any Defacto Materials, in whole or in part, whether as a data set, data feed, API wrapper, plugin, extension, model output, benchmark, report, directory, or in any other form;

remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notice, watermark, attribution, brand mark, verification context, badge context, or metadata appearing on or in any Defacto Materials;

misrepresent Defacto, our verification outputs, our customers, any product, or the meaning of any verification, badge, score, review, status, result, label, widget, or public page.

Any access to or use of Defacto Materials for any of the prohibited activities listed above is unauthorised, is a material breach of these Terms, is expressly outside the scope of any licence or permission granted under these Terms, and may also violate applicable copyright, database, sui generis, trade secret, unfair competition, computer misuse, data protection, and contract laws.

31. Automated agents and session-based access

You must not use, or cause or allow any artificial intelligence agent, automated system, browsing agent, autonomous agent, crawler, scraper, or similar tool acting on your behalf to use our services in a manner that (a) impersonates a human user, (b) circumvents usage limits, (c) masks its automated nature, (d) extracts, caches, embeds, stores, or reuses Defacto Materials outside the session in which they were served, except as expressly permitted for public-page search and discovery, or (e) accesses non-public areas of the Services without our express written authorisation. Any such use is unauthorised and we may block, suspend, or terminate it immediately and without notice.

32. Consequences of breach

If we reasonably believe you have breached any part of this “Search discovery, automated access and restricted uses” section, we may, in any combination and without waiving any other right or remedy:

immediately suspend or terminate your account, subscription, and access to all our services, with no refund and retaining our right to collect all fees due for your current subscription period;

revoke any licence to use our brand marks or widgets;

require you to immediately delete, destroy, and certify the destruction of all Defacto Materials, derivatives, training data, embeddings, model weights, checkpoints, outputs, datasets, databases, benchmarks, reports, and any downstream product or model trained on, derived from, or containing Defacto Materials, in each case in your possession, custody, or control or that of any person acting on your behalf;

seek injunctive and equitable relief in any competent court without the need to post bond or prove actual damages, which you agree are inadequate for a breach of this section;

recover from you all losses, profits made by you or any person acting on your behalf, unjust enrichment, reasonable legal and forensic costs, and any other damages arising from the breach;

pursue any person, entity, or system that received, stored, used, or derived value from Defacto Materials obtained through your breach.

You agree that breach of this section causes us serious and irreparable harm that cannot be adequately remedied by damages alone, that the restrictions in this section are reasonable and necessary to protect our legitimate business interests, and that this section survives termination of these Terms indefinitely.

Termination and suspension

33. Cancelling your subscription

If you don’t want your subscription to auto-renew, cancel from your dashboard or tell us by emailing [billing@defactolabs.com] before your next renewal date (or tell your partner, if you bought through one). You keep access until the end of your current period and you remain responsible for the full fees for that period. After it ends, you will still have access to the free plan if you wish to use it.

34. Termination by you

You may terminate your subscription immediately if: (a) we materially breach these Terms and don’t remedy within 14 days of written notice; (b) we materially breach and the breach can’t be remedied; or (c) our service becomes permanently unavailable as a whole, in which case you’ll receive a pro-rata refund of any prepaid amounts relating to the period after termination.

35. Termination by us

We may terminate your subscription at the end of any subscription period by giving you at least 30 days’ notice before it ends.

We may also terminate your subscription or access immediately if:

you materially breach these Terms and don’t remedy within 14 days of notice;
you materially breach and the breach can’t be remedied (for example, uploading fraudulent CoAs, misrepresenting lab results, or misusing our brand marks to mislead consumers);
in our reasonable opinion you’ve breached the guidelines;
you don’t pay on time;
your partner doesn’t pay us on time;
you initiate an unjustified chargeback against us;
you become insolvent or subject to equivalent proceedings;
your use of our services poses a security risk to our platform; or
in our reasonable opinion, your conduct or your products pose a material reputational, legal or regulatory risk to us or to our other customers (for example, documented patterns of consumer deception, fraudulent CoAs, or serious health or safety concerns about your products).

If you haven’t already paid, you remain responsible for all subscription fees for the whole of the current period. If you’ve already paid, no refund is due.

36. Suspension

We may suspend all or part of your access to our services at any time, at our sole discretion, with or without cause and with or without notice, including (without limitation) where you are in breach of these Terms or the guidelines, where any amount is overdue, where you have initiated a chargeback, where your use poses an actual or potential security risk, or for any operational, legal, regulatory, commercial or other reason we consider appropriate. You remain responsible for all fees incurred during any period of suspension and are not entitled to any refund or credit as a result of suspension.

37. Free plan termination

If you are on the free plan, you may stop using our services and delete your account at any time. We may terminate or suspend your free-plan access immediately at any time and for any reason, with no liability. These Terms continue to apply to anything that happened before termination and to any sections that survive by their nature (see Survival).

38. Effect of termination

On termination: your access to the services ends, embedded widgets stop rendering, and you may export your CoA data for 30 days. After 30 days we may delete your data, subject to any legal retention obligations. Whether you terminate or we do, these Terms continue to apply to anything that happened before termination.

Liability and indemnity

General provisions.

39. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AND EXCLUDING ANY NON-EXCLUDABLE CONDITION, OUR SERVICES AND PLATFORM ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. WE AND OUR AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT OUR SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE FROM OMISSIONS, OR THAT THE USE OF OUR SERVICES WILL PREVENT REGULATORY ENFORCEMENT OR PRODUCE ANY SPECIFIC OUTCOME.

40. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Other than for liability that can’t be excluded or limited under applicable law, each party’s liability (and that of its affiliates) to the other in connection with these Terms or our services, in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited as follows:

Neither party is liable for loss of revenue or profit, loss of goodwill, loss of customers, loss or corruption of data, loss of capital, loss of anticipated savings, damage to reputation, regulatory fines or penalties, losses under other contracts, or any other indirect, consequential, incidental, punitive, exemplary or special loss, damage or expense (including legal costs).
We and our affiliates are not responsible or liable for your conduct, any consumer’s conduct or any other third party’s conduct on our platform or in connection with our services, including any of your content.
Excluding each party’s indemnity obligations below, each party’s total aggregate liability to the other in any circumstances is limited to the total amount you paid us for our services in the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

41. Indemnities

You indemnify us. You’ll pay us and our affiliates on demand the amount of all losses, costs (including reasonable legal costs), expenses, demands or other liabilities (whatever their nature and whether or not avoidable or foreseeable) that we or our affiliates incur or suffer arising out of, or in connection with: (a) your use of our services; (b) your content, including any fraudulent, inaccurate or misleading CoA; (c) your product claims, advertising, labelling or regulatory compliance; (d) your breach of the guidelines or applicable law (including data protection law); or (e) any act or omission by you that causes a personal data breach or places us in breach of data protection law.

We indemnify you. We’ll pay you and your affiliates on demand the amount of all losses, costs (including reasonable legal costs), expenses, demands or other liabilities arising out of, or in connection with, any third-party claim that our brand marks or services infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, excluding any of your content or third-party content.

Indemnity is subject to: (i) the indemnified party giving prompt written notice; (ii) the indemnifying party having the option to control the defence or settlement; (iii) the indemnified party cooperating (at the indemnifying party’s cost); and (iv) the indemnifying party not settling on the indemnified party’s behalf without first sharing the settlement details and obtaining prior written consent.

Important housekeeping

42. No professional advice

Our services do not constitute legal, regulatory, medical, scientific, accounting or financial advice. Any information, templates, analytics, insights, dashboards, reports or materials made available through our services are provided for general informational purposes only, and you are responsible for obtaining independent professional advice before relying on them. It is your responsibility to ensure that your business, products, and use of our services comply with all applicable laws.

43. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms at any time at our sole discretion. The updated Terms take effect when posted on our website or otherwise made available through our services, and apply to your use of our services from that point forward without any further positive acceptance, confirmation or action by you. It is your responsibility to check the current version regularly. If you do not accept a change, your only remedy is to stop using our services and cancel your subscription.

44. Changes to our services

We may change or discontinue any part of our services at any time. If we make material changes to the functionality of a paid service during your subscription period, you can contact us and, at our discretion, we’ll either refund the unused prepaid portion for that service or give you credit to use on other services in the remaining period.

45. Events outside our control

We and our affiliates aren’t liable to you for any failure or delay in performance caused by events outside our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, pandemics, government action, or failures of upstream internet, hosting or payment providers.

46. Notices

Notices to us must be sent to [legal@defactolabs.com] or to our registered address above. Notices to you will be sent to the email on your account or listed in your commercial materials. Notices are deemed received on the next business day after sending.

47. Communications from us

By creating an account, you agree to receive communications from us relating to the services, including administrative, billing, security, transactional, and service-related messages. We may also send you product updates, newsletters, promotional materials, event invitations, case studies, and other marketing communications. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any such message, or by contacting [support@defactolabs.com]. You cannot opt out of administrative, billing, security, or other transactional communications while your account remains active.

48. Fraud and impersonation

From time to time, fraudsters set up websites, emails, social accounts, or payment requests using variants of our name, branding or domain in attempts to deceive our customers. The only website we operate is defactolabs.com (and its subdomains). All official invoices and billing communications will be sent from an @defactolabs.com email address or issued through our platform. We will never ask you to make payment to a bank account, wallet, or address other than those we have provided to you through our platform or an @defactolabs.com email address.

If you receive any communication, invoice, payment request, or service offer claiming to be from us that does not originate from an @defactolabs.com address or our platform, do not respond, pay, or share information, and report it immediately to [security@defactolabs.com]. We are not responsible for any loss resulting from your interaction with fraudulent third parties impersonating us.

49. Copyright and DMCA notice procedure

We respect intellectual property rights and respond to valid notices of claimed copyright infringement. If you believe that content accessible on or through our services infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to [legal@defactolabs.com] including: (a) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or an authorised representative; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material, including a URL or other specific location sufficient for us to locate it; (d) your contact details (name, address, telephone number, email); (e) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and (f) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the copyright owner’s behalf. We may forward notices to the person who posted the content. Repeated or knowingly false notices may result in termination of the notifier’s account and may expose the notifier to liability.

50. Blocked access, sanctions and refused payments

Different laws may apply in different countries and some may restrict our relationship with you. We may block access, terminate your subscription, or refuse to process a payment if we reasonably believe there’s a legal, regulatory or sanctions-related risk - for example, payments from a sanctioned person or country, or situations where we reasonably believe there’s a legal or regulatory issue. You confirm you are not located in a sanctioned country and are not on a sanctioned persons list. We may take these actions without notice.

51. Platform activity data

As part of operating our services, we generate data about how the platform is used - for example, metrics, analytics, category-level statistics, performance indicators, and insights derived from aggregated usage across our customers (together, “platform activity data”).

Platform activity data is our data. We may use it to operate, maintain, improve and develop our services, to produce research, benchmarks and industry insights, and for other lawful business purposes.

Because platform activity data is generated by us from the operation of the services, it is not your confidential information, and no rights in it revert to you at any time. Where it includes information that, presented alone, would identify you or a specific product, we will aggregate or anonymise it before making it available to third parties as a standalone data product, unless you have agreed otherwise or disclosure is required by law.

52. Transfer and assignment

We may assign, transfer or subcontract any of our rights or obligations under these Terms at our discretion, including to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. You may only assign, transfer or subcontract your rights or obligations with our prior written consent. A change of control of a domain receiving our services counts as a transfer by you and needs our consent.

53. Survival

Any section or part of a section that, by its nature, is intended to survive termination (including Your content, Intellectual property, Platform activity data, Feedback, Confidentiality, No refunds, Disclaimers, Limitation of liability, Indemnities, and Governing law) continues to apply after termination.

54. Information and records

If we have a reasonable concern about your compliance with these Terms or our guidelines (for example, about the authenticity of CoAs you’ve uploaded), we may ask you to promptly provide information or access so we can verify it. We’ll give you reasonable notice of any audit, cover our own costs, and limit audits to once per calendar year except where we suspect fraud or a serious breach.

55. Entire agreement

These Terms (together with any commercial materials in force for your subscription, our Privacy Policy, the DPA, and any supplementary terms) make up the entire agreement between you and us on their subject matter and supersede any prior discussions (including any previous version of these Terms).

56. Conflicts

If there’s any conflict between these Terms and your commercial materials (for example, a signed order form), the commercial materials take precedence for the specific conflict.

57. Language

These Terms are in English. If we provide a translation for your convenience, the English version prevails. We have no responsibility for translated versions.

58. Severability

If any part of these Terms is held to be unenforceable, that part will be ignored to the extent of the unenforceability, and the rest of these Terms will remain in full force and effect. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties, damages or liabilities. In those jurisdictions, the warranty disclaimers, limitations of liability, and indemnity provisions in these Terms apply to the maximum extent permitted by law, and any provision that cannot be enforced will be interpreted to provide the closest equivalent result that is enforceable.

59. No waiver

Our failure to exercise, or delay in exercising, a right, power or remedy under these Terms or by law is not a waiver of that right, power or remedy. A waiver of any obligation or breach is not a waiver of any other obligation or later breach.

60. No endorsement

Using our services and our brand marks isn’t an approval, endorsement or recommendation by us of you or your products. You must not market yourself, or give public declarations, suggesting otherwise. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship between you and us.

61. Interpretation

Words like “include”, “like” and “for example” are not words of limitation. Where anything is within our discretion, we mean our sole discretion, acting reasonably.

62. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, their subject matter or their formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims), are governed by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania. You and we irrevocably agree that the courts of Vilnius, Lithuania have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim.

Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at [legal@defactolabs.com].

Defacto Labs, UAB - Ežero g. 11, Papiškių k., LT-65400 Varėnos r., Vilnius, Lithuania - company code 307341982.

DTC Sustainability Marketing Examples: Boost Trust &

Table of Contents

1. Third-Party Lab Testing, Verification Badges & Certifications

What strong execution looks like

Where brands get this wrong

2. EU Green Claims Directive Compliance & Substantiation

What changes now

What substantiation looks like in practice

3. Ingredient Transparency & Full Disclosure Strategy

Full disclosure beats broad claims

How to make transparency usable

4. Conversion Rate Optimization Through Trust Signals & Test Data

Trust has to show up in high-intent moments

What usually converts better

5. AI & Search Engine Optimization for Tested Queries

Structure the proof so machines can read it

Why this matters more now

6. Content Marketing Around Lab Testing & Verification

Education is part of the marketing

What works better than polished brand copy

7. Customer Service Reduction Through Pre-Purchase Transparency

The product page should absorb common objections

Why this matters commercially

8. Competitive Differentiation Through Transparency vs. Vague Claims

The strongest contrast is evidence versus ambiguity

How to build that into positioning

9. Transparency Reports & Public Commitments to Accountability

Accountability beats broad storytelling

What to include

10. Retail & B2B Partner Trust-Building Through Lab Data

What buyers actually want

Why this helps beyond compliance

Sustainability Marketing: 10-Point Comparison

Your Next Step Building a Verifiable Brand

Frequently Asked Questions

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