How to Read a GOTS Transaction Certificate (TC): A Buyer's Verification Guide

Published September 2026 — written by FOCS, a continuously GOTS-certified manufacturer since 2009 under Control Union license #1005901.

If you source organic cotton, wool, or any other GOTS-certified fiber, the Transaction Certificate (TC) is the single document that proves the goods in your warehouse are what your supplier says they are. It is not your supplier's company certificate, it is not their annual scope certificate, and it is definitely not a marketing claim. It is a contract of traceability for one specific shipment — and a buyer who can't read it is exposed to customs seizure, retailer rejection, and greenwashing liability.

This guide walks you through the standard GOTS TC template (20 boxes), the four things that make a TC legally and practically valid, the red flags that should make you reject a TC immediately, and the four-step public verification you can run yourself before you pay an invoice. We issue hundreds of these every year through Control Union (CU 1005901), so the perspective here is from the mill side — the side that fills them out and gets audited on them.

What a GOTS TC Actually Is — And Isn't

A Transaction Certificate is a document issued by an approved GOTS Certification Body (CB) for a specific sale of GOTS goods from one certified supplier to one certified buyer. It is the transactional cousin of the Scope Certificate (SC), which proves your supplier's right to handle GOTS goods in general.

The two together form the integrity chain:

A supplier cannot issue their own TC. Only an accredited CB can — for GOTS, that list currently includes Control Union, ECOCERT, ICEA, Textile Exchange-approved CBs, and a handful of regional certifiers. If a TC doesn't carry an issuing CB's name, license code, stamp, and authorized signature, it isn't a TC.

The 20-Box Walkthrough: What Every Field Actually Means

The current GOTS TC template is published in TC Policy v2.1 (December 2019). Every CB must follow this layout — but the specific field titles vary slightly between CBs (Control Union, ECOCERT, ICEA use slightly different vocabulary). Below is the field-by-field walkthrough using Control Union's terminology, which is the most common for textile buyers in Northern Europe, North America, and Oceania.

Boxes 1–2: The Certifying Authority

• Box 1 — Body issuing the certificate: Full name and address of the CB. For FOCS shipments, this is Control Union (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. with their GOTS licensing code.
• Box 2 — Reference number of the certificate: A unique TC number in the format [Licensee no. of seller]-[TC no.]. For example, a TC from us would start with CU1005901- followed by the TC's individual sequence number. This is your primary key for verification.

Check it: Does the CB name match an approved GOTS certification body listed on global-standard.org? Does the licensing code begin with GOTS- or CU / ICEA / ECO followed by the CB's ID? Anything else is a red flag.

Boxes 3–5: Seller, Inspection Body, Last Processor

• Box 3 — Seller of certified product(s): Legal name and address of the entity that physically shipped the goods. This must be the factory or last processor — not a trading company unless the trader is itself a certified entity in the chain. For FOCS, this reads "Shanghai Fashionorganic Co., Ltd" with our full registered Shanghai address.
• Box 4 — Inspection body: The accredited body that audits the seller's facility annually. For most GOTS mills in China, this is the same CB that issues the SC and the TC.
• Box 5 — Last processor: Who actually performed the last GOTS-relevant processing step (cutting, sewing, dyeing, finishing). For finished socks and garments, this is typically the garment factory — which for FOCS is us, the same legal entity as the seller.

Check it: Does the seller in Box 3 match your supplier's invoice header? If the seller is a different company, ask why — and ask for their own SC.

Boxes 6–9: Logistics

• Box 6 — Country of dispatch: Where the goods physically left from. For our shipments, this is almost always "China."
• Box 7 — Buyer of the product(s): Your company's legal name and address. If this is blank, says "To Whom It May Concern," or names a different buyer, the TC is not your TC — it's a sample, a template, or recycled for a different deal. Always reject a TC without your buyer details.
• Box 8 — Consignee: The destination address. May differ from buyer (e.g., goods shipped to your third-party logistics warehouse). Multiple consignees are allowed under one TC if Box 10 clearly links each product line to its consignee.
• Box 9 — Country of destination: Where the goods are headed.

Box 10: Product and Shipment Information (The Most Error-Prone Box)

This is where the bulk of disputes happen. The CB requires:

• Product units and names exactly as they appear on the commercial invoice
• Label grade: organic (≥95% organic fiber) or made with organic (≥70% organic fiber). This must match what's printed on your product care labels.
• Fibre material composition as percentage by weight (e.g., "85% organic cotton, 13% recycled nylon, 2% elastane")
• Invoice number and date
• Transport document reference (bill of lading, AWB, truck/container number)

Check it: Does every product line on the TC match your purchase order exactly — same model name, same fibre composition, same quantity? If the TC says "10,000 kg organic cotton socks" but your PO is for "12,000 kg organic cotton socks," only 10,000 kg of your finished garments can be labelled GOTS. The extra 2,000 kg is a compliance gap you cannot sell as organic.

Boxes 11–13: Weights

• Box 11 — Gross weight (kg): Total weight including packaging
• Box 12 — Net weight (kg): Total weight of products, excluding packaging
• Box 13 — Commercial weight (kg): What you actually paid for on the invoice. For finished garments, this is typically the same as Box 12.

These three numbers should reconcile with each other and with the invoice. A 1–2% discrepancy due to packaging variance is normal; a 10% discrepancy is a red flag.

Boxes 14–16: The Declarations and Stamp

• Box 14 — Declaration of the body issuing the certificate: This is the legal heart of the TC. It states that (i) the raw materials were produced under a GOTS-recognized organic farming standard, and (ii) the products were processed in accordance with GOTS, both under the responsibility of the named CB.
• Box 15 — Additional declarations: For products sold in the US, the TC must explicitly indicate whether the organic fibre complies with USDA NOP rules. This is mandatory for any TC destined for the US market, even if the fibre was never USDA-certified.
• Box 16 — Place and date of issue: Where and when the CB signed and stamped. Must include the CB's stamp, logo, and the authorized signer's name.

Check it: A TC without a CB stamp, logo, or signature in Box 16 is not a valid TC — it's a draft.

Box 17: Continuation of Box 10 (If Needed)

Used when Box 10 has more product lines than fit on page 1. Common for mixed shipments.

Boxes 18–19: Destination Continuation and Logo Restriction

• Box 18 — Continuation of Box 8 and Box 9: If multiple consignees, their details go here.
• Box 19 — Logo restriction clause: This is the one most buyers miss. It states: "This transaction certificate does not entitle the buyer / consignee of the goods to use the GOTS logo or make reference to GOTS. The rules for the labelling of GOTS certified goods are outlined in the Licensing and Labelling Guide."

In other words, having a TC gives you the right to make a GOTS claim on your product, but it does not give you the right to use the GOTS logo on your packaging unless you've separately signed a licensing agreement and paid the annual logo fee to GOTS. This is one of the most common compliance mistakes — small brands print the GOTS logo on their packaging after receiving a TC, without realizing they need a separate sublicense.

Box 20: Authorized Signature

Final stamp, logo, and signature of the CB's authorized representative. Required to match Box 16.

The 6 Red Flags That Should Make You Reject a TC

1. Buyer name missing or wrong — if Box 7 isn't your company, the TC isn't yours.
2. Quantity in Box 10/11/12 doesn't match the invoice — every kilogram must reconcile.
3. Label grade (organic vs made with organic) doesn't match your product label — this is the most common recall trigger in retail.
4. No CB stamp, logo, or signature in Box 16/20 — it's a draft, not a TC.
5. Issuing CB isn't on the GOTS-approved CB list — verify against global-standard.org.
6. Multiple shipments on one TC over more than 3 months or 100 shipments — TC Policy v2.1 Section B2 explicitly forbids this; a TC that violates B2.1 is procedurally invalid even if the underlying goods are genuine.

The 4-Step Public Verification You Can Run Yourself

You don't need to trust your supplier's word — you can verify any TC against the issuing CB's database in under 10 minutes:

1. Locate the CB's public verification tool. For Control Union, it's the Certification Verification page at controlunion.com. ECOCERT and ICEA have equivalents on their respective sites.
2. Enter the TC reference number from Box 2.
3. Cross-check five fields: seller legal name and address, product description, fibre composition, label grade, and date of issue. All five should match the paper TC exactly.
4. Verify the seller's Scope Certificate by searching the same database for the seller. The seller must have a currently valid SC whose expiry date is later than the TC's issue date. A TC issued after the seller's SC expired is invalid.

For FOCS shipments, you can search Control Union's database using license number CU 1005901 to confirm both our current SC and any specific TC you've received. As of September 2026, our GOTS scope is valid through 2027-08-30, covering crew socks, knee-highs, baby tights, organic wool styles, and seamless knitting processes.

How FOCS Handles TCs for Brand Clients

For every confirmed purchase order, we apply for a TC through Control Union with full supporting documentation — input TCs from our yarn suppliers, our own production records, the commercial invoice, and the bill of lading. Most TCs reach our brand clients within 7–10 days of the goods leaving our warehouse. We also send a one-page TC reference summary listing the five fields the buyer should verify, so the buyer's compliance or sustainability team doesn't have to start from zero.

If you need a sample TC layout before placing a first order, we're happy to share a redacted version with the full structure intact. Send your spec to [email protected] and we'll respond within 24 hours with a downloadable sample, an SC copy, and a quote.

FOCS — Shanghai Fashionorganic Co., Ltd — has held GOTS certification continuously since 2009 under Control Union license #1005901. Current GOTS scope valid through 2027-08-30. Related certifications: RWS, GRS, BSCI, Higg Index, ISO 14001, BCI, FSC. Twenty years manufacturing certified organic and recycled socks for brands across Europe, North America, and Oceania.

Frequently Asked Questions