Methodology
Where every figure on this site comes from, when we last retrieved it, and — just as importantly — what it does not prove. The counts below are read from our own database at page load, not written by hand.
Registries we hold in full
We keep a complete, continuously updated copy of the registries below, and we record every change. That means we can tell you not only whether a supplier is listed today, but when they were listed and when they stopped being listed — which the official sources, each a snapshot of the present, cannot.
Colombian public-contracting sanctions (SECOP I)
Fines and sanctions imposed on contractors in Colombian public procurement — the closest Colombian equivalent to Brazil’s CEIS/CNEP debarment registers.
What it does not prove: Companies only. A Colombian NIT and a personal cédula are both nine or ten digits, so unlike Brazil the identifier cannot separate them — entries are published only where the name carries an explicit corporate form, and anything ambiguous is withheld. Covers SECOP I; a sanction recorded elsewhere, or by a regional authority, will not appear.
EU consolidated sanctions list
Persons and entities subject to EU restrictive measures. For a European buyer this is the regime that actually binds them — an EU operator cannot make funds or economic resources available to a listed party.
What it does not prove: Matched on name only — this list carries no tax identifier, exactly like OFAC and the UN list. Only English and untagged aliases are held: the source translates every listing into all official EU languages, and those translations are noise when matching a supplier’s legal name.
Federal debarment (CEIS + CNEP)
CEIS lists companies barred or suspended from contracting with Brazilian public bodies. CNEP lists penalties under the Anti-Corruption Law (Lei 12.846/2013).
What it does not prove: A sanction has a start and often an end date — an expired entry is not an active restriction, and we surface both. These registries cover dealings with the Brazilian state, not commercial conduct toward private buyers.
Environmental embargoes
Areas embargoed by Brazil’s federal environmental agency following an infraction — typically illegal deforestation. The embargo attaches to a specific area and the responsible party.
What it does not prove: An embargo names an area and a responsible party; it is not by itself a finding about every product a company sells. About 10% of records carry no usable CNPJ or CPF and cannot be matched to a company by identifier alone.
Leniency agreements (Acordos de Leniência)
Companies that formally admitted to corruption, fraud or cartel conduct under Brazil’s Anti-Corruption Law (12.846/2013) in exchange for reduced penalties, negotiated with the federal comptroller.
What it does not prove: Distinct from CEIS/CNEP, and not a duplicate check: a leniency agreement is a negotiated, self-reported admission — often made explicitly in exchange for staying off the debarment list — while CEIS/CNEP records a unilateral penalty. We surface agreements that are still being performed and those already fulfilled, because the admission does not stop having been made when the term ends. About 1 in 6 rows in the source is a foreign entity with no Brazilian tax number and cannot be matched here at all.
Forced-labour registry (“Lista Suja”)
Employers found by labour inspectors to have subjected workers to conditions analogous to slavery. Inclusion follows an administrative process and can happen with no advance notice to anyone already buying from that supplier.
What it does not prove: Inclusion is administrative, not a criminal conviction. Entries can be suspended by court injunction and removed after two years of compliance. Absence from the list is not evidence that no violation occurred — only that none has been finalised through this process.
OFAC Specially Designated Nationals
Individuals and entities subject to United States sanctions. Dealing with a listed party can expose a US-connected buyer to secondary sanctions.
What it does not prove: Matched on name only — this list carries no Brazilian tax identifier. Name matches are a prompt to verify independently, never a conclusion. Common company names produce false positives, and this is the source most likely to.
EU-approved cattle holdings (APTAS list)
Brazilian bovine holdings cleared to supply the EU export chain — the register that feeds the EU’s TRACES system. Published by MAPA as a numbered PDF; each release replaces the last, so only the current version is ever available from the source.
What it does not prove: Approval here is about animal-health eligibility to supply the EU chain, not environmental or labour compliance — a listed holding may still appear in any other register on this site. It also says nothing about whether a given consignment actually came from a listed holding. Note the EU removes Brazil from its list of countries authorised to export animal products on 3 September 2026, over controls on antimicrobial use — a separate matter from the EUDR deforestation deadline of 30 December. This register is the Brazilian side of an arrangement now in flux.
UN Consolidated Sanctions List
Individuals and entities subject to UN Security Council sanctions measures, including their recorded aliases.
What it does not prove: Name-only matching, with the same false-positive caveat as OFAC. Aliases are indexed separately, so one entity may appear more than once.
Sources checked per supplier
The remaining sources cannot be mirrored wholesale. Some are geographic — they need a registered property boundary rather than a company number. Some need documents only the buyer or supplier holds. They are checked when we screen a supplier, not held as a standing copy, and we would rather say so than round “14 sources” up into a claim that they all work the same way.
How we handle the data
We record, we don’t score
We publish what a government source says, with the source named, linked, and dated. We do not publish a trust score, a star rating, or a risk grade for any company. A score is an opinion we would be asserting about a real business; the underlying record is a fact you can verify yourself against the official source in the same row.
Nothing is deleted
When an entry disappears from a source, we mark it as no longer listed and keep the record. Removal is itself information: a supplier who was listed and has since been cleared has a different history from one who was never listed at all, and only continuous observation can tell them apart.
Matching, and where it fails
Brazilian registries are matched on CNPJ or CPF — an exact identifier. The international sanctions lists carry no Brazilian identifier and are matched on name only, which produces false positives on common company names. We flag those as name matches to verify independently, never as findings.
What we are not
We are not a certifier, a customs broker, or a filer of due diligence statements. We assemble evidence and timestamp it; your compliance officer, your importer, or your licensed broker decides what to do with it. Nothing on this site is legal advice or a compliance attestation.
Found something here that looks wrong? We would rather hear it than not — [email protected].
Check a supplier against these sources — free