Product certification is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed performance tests and quality assurance tests, and meets criteria stipulated in contracts, regulations, or specifications. A certified product is able to garner trust and command a higher price in the market.
But product certificate fraud is common and increasing, especially for high value items such as luxury goods and medical devices. Manufacturers in Asia are notorious in this regard since they often see product compliance paperwork as a mere bureaucratic hurdle, and the importer is ultimately liable.
A typical scenario is this: the manufacturer takes an existing lab test report found online or obtained a few years ago, and changes the supplier name and product model. This can be done in Photoshop or by editing the PDF. Another common scenario is to rely on test reports from ‘partner companies’. But a lab test report only has value if it’s for the specific product and supplier stated in the certificate.
Not with verifiable digital certs you can’t! Testing labs can use NextCert to produce verifiable test reports and certificates of product compliance with regulations. These certificates are tamper-proof and impossible to fake. They also provide detailed information about the recipient which applied for and received the certificate.
