Only evidence moves a result.
Paying changes how fast we review and how much help you get. It never changes a result. Only new evidence does that. The free check runs the identical automated methodology on any public product, whether or not the merchant has ever paid TilliT anything. That single, structural fact is what this page exists to make checkable, not just claimed.
Does "the audited party pays" always create suspicion?
No. But it fails in a specific, predictable way when it does. The question isn't whether money changes hands. It's whether the paying party can shop for a friendlier answer, or move the outcome without new evidence.
Credit rating agencies
The bond issuer picks and pays the agency that rates its own debt.
Never let the party being scored choose which assessor gets their money.
Better Business Bureau ratings
Local businesses pay membership dues.
If a score visibly moves right after a payment, with no new evidence in between, someone will eventually test that in public. It won't survive.
USDA organic certifiers
The producer pays a certifier and chooses which approved certifier to use.
The same 'shopping' failure as credit agencies, live and unresolved, in the exact market TilliT operates in.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL)
The manufacturer pays UL directly, including an ongoing annual fee.
Paid work and real trust can coexist, if rule-writing is separated from rating, and checking continues after the money changes hands.
Good Housekeeping Seal
Testing is free. The brand only pays afterward, for advertising space, and that's a separate transaction.
Keep 'did it pass' and 'how the brand pays to use the result' as two transactions that never touch each other.
Five safeguards, kept live
Payment never moves a result. Only new evidence can
Verifying your store and submitting evidence is the only way a claim's status changes, whether the merchant is paying or not. That channel is free and open to everyone. A paying merchant gets faster review and better tools, never a shortcut around the evidence itself.
This page
A standing, permanent page for this one commitment, linked from every result. It's modeled on how Yuka states its own independence.
Paid visibility is always labeled, never blended in
If a subscription ever affects placement in a directory or featured list, it's labeled sponsored or partner placement, kept separate from the evidence-based ranking. That's the same disclosure the FTC requires of paid endorsements generally.
We keep checking after the money changes hands
Certification doesn't end the checking. TilliT's own recall, enforcement and litigation screening runs on already-published claims, paid or not. A change gets disclosed, never quietly absorbed.
The hard-pressure answer, decided now, not under pressure
A published TilliT result doesn't change because of a legal threat, a lobbying call, or a lost account. It changes only because of new evidence, submitted through the same public correction pathway any unclaimed store can use. We're writing that down now, before we're ever tested on it.
A paying merchant gets faster review, guided help preparing the right evidence, and better display tools. What they don't get is a shortcut around the evidence itself. Verifying your store and replying to a finding is the only way a result changes, and that channel is free and open to every merchant, paying or not.