How should a leather manufacturer show LWG certification?
On a leather and footwear manufacturer’s website, the LWG certificate is shown with the site’s URN, rating and expiry date; because the certificate belongs to the site, “LWG certified” is not written at product level. An EU regulation that took effect in September 2026 removed cattle leather from the scope of the deforestation regulation (EUDR); leather will be reassessed in the general review in 2030.
Leather carried about 0.6% of sector-based exports registered with the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) in 2025, at 1.45 billion dollars. This guide is the detail of the leather and footwear row of the certificate map by sector; how a certificate generally belongs on a website is covered in the certified manufacturer website guide.
Which certificate does a leather buyer ask for?
On the leather side, the main certificate is LWG’s site certificate. The Leather Working Group audits leather manufacturers, traders and subcontractors; manufacturers receive a rating based on their audit score: Gold 85%, Silver 75%, Bronze 65%, Audited 50% (traders are “Approved”). The certificate is valid for 24 months for manufacturers and subcontractors and 12 months for traders of semi-finished leather. The most important detail: an LWG certificate belongs to the site, not to the product; LWG does not regulate product claims today.
For a buyer, the rating can matter as much as the certificate itself: Gold and Audited carry the same certificate name, but there are 35 points between their thresholds. So writing “LWG certified” on the site is not enough; writing the rating, the protocol and the expiry date tells the buyer which audit the site passed, with which rating, and until when that holds.
For a site selling footwear or leather products directly to EU consumers, the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) applies as well: the distance sales offer includes the manufacturer’s name and postal and electronic address, the responsible person in the EU if the manufacturer is outside the EU, the product’s identification and warnings (Art. 19); the rule has applied since December 13, 2024. The details are in the GPSR product page guide.
How is the LWG certificate shown on the website?
LWG’s logo guidelines (V2.2, March 26, 2026) set the rule: the logo is specific to a site, carries the site’s URN and the certificate’s expiry date, and may not be used once the certificate ends. The logo may be used on the website, on invoices and on social media; LWG-certified material is separated at line level. On the site, this means the site’s name, URN, rating and expiry date on the certificate page, and in the product table, which material comes from an LWG-certified site.
Claims by brand members are governed by a separate guidance (LWG Membership Claims Guidance 2025). A manufacturer is certified as a site and a brand is a member; the two are written separately on the site. In a company with several sites or subcontractors, each certificate stands with the name of its own site: a subcontractor’s certificate is not the certificate of the company’s own site.
| Item | On the website | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| LWG certificate, with URN, rating and expiry date | Yes, on the certificate page, with the site’s name | LWG logo guidelines V2.2 |
| LWG logo | Site-specific; with URN and expiry date; removed when the certificate ends | LWG logo guidelines V2.2 |
| “LWG certified” at product level | No | LWG does not regulate product claims |
| LWG-certified material | On a separate line in the product table | LWG logo guidelines V2.2 |
| Manufacturer, product and warning information in distance sales | When selling to EU consumers | GPSR Art. 19 |
Where certificates belong on a leather website
- 01LWG certificate, with URN, rating and expiry date
- 02LWG logo
- 03“LWG certified” at product level
- 04LWG-certified material, on a separate line
- 05GPSR information in distance sales
What should a leather website not say?
- “LWG certified” or “LWG-approved leather” at product level: the certificate belongs to the site, and LWG does not regulate product claims today.
- Leaving the logo of an expired LWG certificate on the site.
- Using the LWG logo without the URN and expiry date.
- Presenting a subcontractor’s or supplier’s certificate as your own site’s certificate.
- Saying “LWG certified” without the rating: there are 35 points between the Gold and Audited thresholds.
- Describing cattle leather as if it were still within the scope of the EUDR.
What changed for leather in 2026?
Two things. LWG’s logo guidelines were renewed in March 2026 (V2.2). In the EU’s deforestation regulation, the delegated regulation that took effect in September 2026 (2026/2102) removed raw cattle hides and skins and cattle leather (ex 4101, ex 4104, ex 4107) from the scope; leather will be reassessed in the general review in 2030. The commodities covered are cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood; sheep or goat leather was never on this list. So EUDR sentences written for leather on the site should be updated.
LWG’s new standards system, on the other hand, has not been published yet: the updated standards are expected in early 2027, followed by a six-month transition. A sentence on the site saying the company is certified under the new system is not written until then.
How does a buyer verify the certificate?
In LWG’s directory. The directory runs in the browser and shows the site’s URN, rating, protocol, audit expiry date and address. Writing the URN on the site lets the buyer find the right site in the directory in a single search; writing the expiry date lets the buyer see whether the directory and the site say the same thing. The company’s accredited management system certificates, in turn, can be searched in CertSearch; the four-step path is in the is a company’s ISO certificate real guide.
How are the product page and the machine layer built?
The product page says which site the leather comes from and what rating that site holds; if LWG-certified and non-certified material are combined in the same product, the two are written on separate lines. Because a trader of semi-finished leather holds a certificate valid for 12 months, the expiry date on the page changes more often; when the certificate is renewed, the LWG reference on the product pages is updated at the same time. For footwear, the page also carries the information the GPSR requires: manufacturer, responsible person in the EU, product identification and warnings.
In the machine layer, the certificate can be marked up as a Certification identical to the record visible on the page, knowing that Google does not use this markup for leather: Google supports certification markup only in merchant listings, for the EU energy label and vehicle CO2 classes. Adding a certificate to the markup that the page does not state tells neither the buyer nor the machine anything true.
A short checklist for a leather website
- Is the LWG certificate shown with the site’s name, URN, rating and expiry date?
- Is a sentence with “LWG certified” at product level left on the site?
- Has the logo of an expired certificate come off the site?
- Is LWG-certified material on a separate line in the product table?
- Does a subcontractor’s certificate look like your own site’s?
- Have EUDR sentences written for cattle leather been updated?
- For footwear sold to EU consumers, is the GPSR information on the page?
The information here is not legal advice; confirm which rule applies to you from official sources and from your certification body’s current requirements.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is an LWG certificate issued to the product or the site?
To the site. LWG audits leather manufacturers, traders and subcontractors; the certificate belongs to the site, and LWG does not regulate product claims today.
How long is an LWG certificate valid?
24 months for manufacturers and subcontractors, 12 months for traders of semi-finished leather.
Is cattle leather within the scope of the EUDR?
Not anymore. The delegated regulation that took effect in September 2026 (2026/2102) removed raw cattle hides and skins and cattle leather from the scope; leather will be reassessed in the general review in 2030.