Transaction Verification

Certificate holders can submit their data using pre-defined formats supplied by FSC. The format requires information on volumes bought and sold, as well as unique identifiers such as invoice numbers.

Certification bodies will notify the affected certificate holders, providing clear instructions, timelines and requirements of the specified transaction verification loop.

Read more on this: FSC Board Approves Plan To Address False Claims In The FSC System

Transaction verification is a certification activity carried out by Certification Bodies with their clients, and Certification Bodies collect the transaction data from their client certificate holders.

As with all certification activities, and according to FSC-STD-20-001, clause 1.8, the Certification Body “shall be responsible, through legally enforceable commitments, for the management of all information obtained or created during the performance of certification activities”.  According to FSC-STD-20-001, clause 2.4.2, the Certification Body must have established procedures to “define the controls needed for the identification, transport, transmission, storage, protection, retrieval and disposition of its records related to the implementation of FSC requirements, including controls to safeguard confidentiality”.  Therefore, if a certificate holder has concerns on matters regarding certification activities, including Transaction Verification, the certificate holder should raise these concerns with its Certification Body.

Certification Bodies must have the necessary agreements with their clients to comply with the requirements of FSC-STD-20-001.

Certification Bodies provide the transaction data to ASI for investigation through verification that FSC output claims made by certificate holders are accurate and match with the FSC input claims.  This check-and-balance system is essential for a third-party certification system like FSC, which cannot be waived.

Note: Processing of business sensitive and confidential data is lawful as processing is necessary in order to ensure compliance with the FSC Certification scheme to which the data subject is party.

When ASI verifies that transactions do not match between trading partners, ASI informs the applicable certificate holders’ Certification Bodies to request additional information for further investigation.

In carrying out transaction verification, FSC does not expect or require receiving, accessing or processing Transaction Verification data.  However, FSC does receive all relevant information and data regarding non-conformities identified via ASI investigations, so that FSC can take the appropriate measures to protect the FSC scheme and FSC’s reputation.  FSC has the appropriate legal agreements with ASI and Certification Bodies to handle such data and information.

Yes, they are the same everywhere in the world. However, based on a risk analysis and evidence of false claims, FSC and ASI will mainly focus transaction verification loops on certain regions and supply chains, where likelihood of false claims is high.

The refusal to provide transaction data represents a breach of the contractual agreement between the organization and the certification body. If the information is not provided within the time frame requested by the certification body, the certificate holder will be issued a CAR or have their certificate suspended and/or terminated.

Fraud and misuse of the FSC label by non-certificate holders are dealt with through the FSC legal office and trademark enforcement team, which investigate false use of FSC trademarks for non-eligible products and take legal action when needed.

‘Fraud’ is the term used for intentional false claims within the FSC system. ‘False claims’ happen when a product that is not eligible to be sold as FSC certified is sold with FSC claims on its sales documents. False claims can be intentional or not. They are only considered fraud when it can be proven without a doubt that the claim was made intentionally. ‘Inaccurate claims’ are where a product that is eligible to be sold as FSC certified is sold with the wrong claim (e.g. a product that should be sold as FSC Mix is sold as FSC 100%).

The data required for each TV loop may vary but generally will include information on trading partner (e.g. name, FSC CoC code), quantity, units, FSC claim type and species.  Other data may be requested such as transaction identifier (e.g. invoice number), transaction date, description of products, country of origin, etc. No financial information will be required. The data will be collected on a sample basis, usually relating to a specific species, product type or timeframe in a specified format. The size of the sample requested will be determined by FSC and ASI based on risk. Auditors may also request access to shipping documents, invoices, or similar for confirmation.