GenuTrace and Kinset on Monday announced a partnership aimed at helping global brands substantiate cotton origin claims with evidence capable of withstanding regulatory enforcement, as Germany moves to enforce stricter anti-greenwashing rules and U.S. scrutiny under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) continues to expand.
The collaboration comes amid a rapidly evolving compliance environment in which sustainability and origin claims are no longer judged primarily on intent or documentation, but on whether they can be proven with verifiable, product-linked evidence. Germany is among the first European Union member states to begin enforcing amended provisions of its Act Against Unfair Competition, implementing the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive. The rules explicitly prohibit vague, generic, or unverifiable environmental claims, raising the bar for how companies communicate sustainability attributes to consumers.
At the same time, enforcement under the UFLPA in the United States continues to place the burden of proof squarely on importers to demonstrate that goods, including cotton-based products, are not linked to forced labour. Detentions of shipments and heightened customs scrutiny have underscored the limits of relying on supplier declarations and paper-based traceability alone.
Against this backdrop, GenuTrace and Kinset said they are delivering a dual-layer cotton traceability model that links physical fibre-level verification with Digital Product Passport-ready supply-chain data. The approach is designed to help companies move from stated origin claims to defensible origin evidence that can be presented to regulators across jurisdictions.
GenuTrace contributes fibre-level isotope testing, a scientific method that assesses the geographic origin of cotton directly from the material itself, independent of documentation or certifications. Kinset provides the digital infrastructure to structure, preserve, and connect supplier, transaction, and location data across complex cotton supply chains, creating a regulator-legible record aligned with emerging Digital Product Passport requirements in the EU.
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“Regulation has fundamentally changed the question brands must answer,” said MeiLin Wan, founder and chief executive of GenuTrace. “It’s no longer ‘where did you intend to source from?’ It’s ‘can you prove that the cotton in this product actually comes from where you say it does?’ By linking physical origin verification directly to digital records, we help companies respond to enforcement with evidence, not explanations.”
Cotton supply chains are among the most complex in the apparel and textiles sector, stretching across multiple countries and involving numerous stages where materials are aggregated, blended, or recycled. Origin information is often lost or diluted at early transformation points such as spinning, recycling, and yarn production. That loss of integrity creates downstream risk for textile mills, apparel brands, footwear companies, and home-textile producers, where origin and sustainability claims are ultimately made to consumers and regulators.
While digital traceability systems and certification schemes remain widely used, regulators are increasingly testing whether the physical reality of the fibre aligns with claims made downstream. Under both EU consumer-protection law and UFLPA enforcement, documentation alone has proven insufficient when challenged.
“Digital Product Passports and due-diligence systems only work if the data behind them is credible,” said Katie O’Riordan, chief executive and co-founder of Kinset. “Our collaboration focuses on connecting existing supply-chain data with independent physical verification, so companies can strengthen compliance without rebuilding their systems from scratch.”
The companies said the collaboration is intended to support brands facing regulatory scrutiny in multiple markets by enabling earlier detection of sourcing risks, improving audit and investigation readiness, and supporting consistent disclosures as Digital Product Passports become mandatory in the EU.
As Germany’s greenwashing enforcement takes effect and UFLPA oversight continues to expand, companies face growing pressure to limit claims to what can be substantiated and to design traceability systems with enforcement in mind. Industry specialists say the direction of travel is clear: traceability is shifting from a transparency exercise to an evidentiary requirement.
By linking scientific verification of cotton origin with structured digital supply-chain records, GenuTrace and Kinset said they are offering brands a practical model for navigating a compliance landscape in which resilience increasingly depends on replacing promises with proof.
