What the Welo Badge means

If a company earns the Welo Badge, it means that, at the time of certification, it met Welo’s core requirements, meaning pass fail baseline conditions designed to protect consumers, it achieved strong results across Welo’s Trust Topics, meaning scored areas such as transparency, policies, checkout clarity, reputation patterns, and risk signals, and it provided consistent, verifiable information.

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The badge is interactive, when a visitor clicks it, it opens the company’s Welo Page on Welo’s website, that page explains the badge status and the main trust points in a simple way, so people don’t have to “guess” what the certification means.

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Important, the badge is earned through verification, it’s not a cosmetic sticker.

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What the Welo Badge does not mean

The Welo Badge does not guarantee product quality, delivery times, or that a customer will never have an issue, it is not legal advice, and it does not replace consumer rights, payment protections, or local regulations.

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What it truly means is that this company meets baseline trust requirements and does not show critical risk signals, according to Welo’s framework at the time of verification.

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Who we verify

In general, Welo verifies businesses such as ecommerce brands and online shops, SaaS products and subscription services, digital products and consumer-facing services, consumer services that involve online booking or payment, and marketplaces that clearly define consumer protections, on a case-by-case basis.‍

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Some sectors require a separate framework due to regulatory complexity, security risks, or a high potential for consumer harm, for this reason Welo does not offer certification for the categories below.

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If a company is close to the boundary of these categories, Welo may assess eligibility on a case-by-case basis, but we do not guarantee certification availability for excluded sectors.

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The structure of Welo verification

Welo uses a two-level model, so the badge stays credible while still allowing a more nuanced evaluation through scoring.‍

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Level A, Core Requirements, Pass Fail: These are baseline conditions, if a company fails even one core requirement, it cannot receive the badge, even if other areas are strong.‍

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Level B, Trust Topics, Score 0–100: If the core requirements are met, Welo assigns a Trust Score based on the trust topics, this score helps consumers understand trust at a glance, and helps companies understand what to improve.‍

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A high score can never compensate for a failed core requirement.

How the Trust Score works, 0–100

The Trust Score is designed to be clear and fair, not all trust topics impact the risk of consumer harm in the same way, so they are weighted, we can also adjust the weights based on the business model, for example subscription products require more emphasis on billing, renewals, and cancellation.

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Welo’s score rewards maturity and transparency, but the badge always requires meeting the baseline.

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Core Requirements

FR1, Real and consistent presence: The website must represent a real business that a normal person can understand, what we verify, the site is active, consistent, and not intentionally misleading, the main purchase or signup flow works, the key information is consistent across pages.

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Common failure examples, broken checkout, placeholder pages, unclear offer, contradictory information, unclear pricing.

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FR2, Verifiable identity and contactability: Trust requires accountability, people must be able to contact the company, what we verify: at least one support channel works, such as a support email, contact form, or ticketing, identity signals are consistent enough to prevent impersonation or major mismatches.

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Common failure examples, fake support, unreachable contact, unclear operator identity, impersonation signals.

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FR3, Essential policies present and usable: Consumers must know the rules before they buy, what we verify: privacy policy and terms are accessible, refund, return, or cancellation rules exist and are consistent with the business model, policies are readable and not intentionally confusing.

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Common failure examples, missing policies, hidden policies, broken links, language that contradicts what actually happens in checkout.

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FR4, No critical red flags: The badge must never certify companies that show strong evidence of harm or deception, what we verify: severe scam patterns, identity manipulation, recurring patterns of unresolved harm, materially false statements provided during verification.

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How we handle uncertainty, if the signals point to uncertainty rather than clear deception, Welo may request clarifications and additional evidence before deciding.

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FR5, Accuracy of information provided to Welo: Verification only works if inputs are true, what we verify: the company does not submit forged documents or materially false information, outcome, material deception fails the verification and may make the company ineligible in the future.

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What it truly means is that this company meets baseline trust requirements and does not show critical risk signals, according to Welo’s framework at the time of verification.

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Trust Topic Requirements

TTR1, Identity and ownership: We look for clear identity signals on key pages, consistent branding, and transparent indicators of ownership, a new company can still score well if it is transparent and consistent, scores drop when the identity appears intentionally vague.‍

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TTR2, Security, trust focused: This is not a penetration test, it is a trust-oriented evaluation, designed to detect obvious exposures, suspicious patterns, and missing baseline protections that correlate with consumer risk.‍

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TTR3, Privacy and data handling: A privacy policy should not exist only to “tick a box”, we assess whether it is accessible, understandable, and consistent with the site’s behavior.‍

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TTR4, Payment and checkout transparency: Consumers lose trust when they feel surprised at checkout, we assess price clarity, hidden fees, billing logic, and renewal and cancellation clarity for subscriptions.‍

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TTR5, Legal policies and consumer protection: We don’t require perfect legal language, we require usable rules, if a normal person can’t understand refunds, returns, shipping, or cancellations, trust goes down.‍

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TTR6, Support and dispute handling: Support doesn’t have to be instant to be reliable, it must be real, visible, and consistent, strong patterns of unresolved disputes significantly reduce trust.‍

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TTR7, Reputation and behavior: We look at patterns over time, not perfection, a company can have negative reviews, what matters is recurring themes of unresolved harm and overall consistency.‍

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TTR8, Risk signals: We look for indicators of deception, identity mismatches, misleading claims, unnatural patterns, or severe inconsistencies between marketing and reality.When the evidence is strong, certification is blocked, when the evidence is mixed, we request clarifications.

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The verification process

Welo’s process is structured to be efficient for legitimate businesses and more rigorous when the risk to consumers is higher.

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Payment covers the verification work, not the outcome.

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If a company does not pass, Welo can provide a clear improvement summary, often failing means “not ready yet”, not “never”.

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Evidence and documentation

Welo does not create bureaucracy for its own sake, evidence requests are proportional to risk and focused on what truly impacts trust.

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Welo collects only what is necessary, if a company shares sensitive information, it is handled confidentially and used only for verification.

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Badge states, monitoring, and enforcement

Trust is not static, a badge only matters if it can respond to real-world changes.

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Certification types: Welo uses two certification levels, recognizable by the checkmark.

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• Blue Checkmark: awarded to companies that meet Welo standards for security, transparency, and consumer protection, it confirms that the main trust indicators have been independently verified.
• Gold Checkmark: represents the highest level of reliability, it is reserved for a very small number of selected companies, it applies higher thresholds across all evaluated areas, and it cannot be purchased, it is granted only by Welo to businesses that demonstrate strength and consistency over time.

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Badge states: states are clear and public, and apply to both certifications (Blue and Gold), to show what’s happening:

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• Active / Certified
• Under review / Recheck in progress
• Suspended, temporarily disabled pending clarification
• Revoked,certification removed

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Typical recheck triggers: a recheck may be initiated due to major policy removals, sudden spikes in credible complaints, significant changes in billing or checkout, or serious security issues.

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Suspension vs revocation: suspension is used when signals are credible but clarification and verification are needed, revocation happens when core requirements are no longer met, risk persists without remediation, or material deception is found.

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When appropriate, companies can fix issues and reapply, the goal is to improve the web, not punish good-faith mistakes.

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Transparency, the Welo Page

For certified companies, Welo publishes a public Welo Page, designed to be clear, readable, and useful, it explains what the badge means, highlights the main trust points, and shows relevant status information.

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Welo can also provide private verifications for consumers on non-client websites, these results remain private and are not published.

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Independence and conflicts of interest

Welo’s credibility depends on independence, outcomes follow the published standard, payment can never override pass fail requirements, companies are evaluated using the same baseline logic, with depth adjusted to risk.‍

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If a company does not pass, Welo can provide an improvement summary, so the company knows what to fix, and the badge remains meaningful for consumers.

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Reports and appeals

Consumers can report issues through Welo’s official channels, including the company’s public Welo Page, where a dedicated path is available to submit a report or flag an anomaly.‍

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Companies, instead, can file an appeal, request clarifications, or ask for a recheck directly through Welo’s support channels after resolving the highlighted issues, every appeal or request is evaluated consistently against the published standard and based on verifiable evidence (documentation, technical proof, and objective information), with the goal of ensuring transparency, consistent decisions, and protection for both consumers and businesses.

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Updates and versioning

The web evolves quickly, and so do risks, technologies, and user expectations, for this reason Welo may update this standard over time to keep it current, consistent, and truly useful.‍

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When updates happen, we version the document, date the changes, and publish updates transparently, so companies and consumers can always understand what changed, when, and why. ‍

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In case of significant changes (for example new required checks, stricter criteria, or new minimum evidence), the company may need to re-confirm certain requirements at renewal, or provide additional documentation to maintain its verified status.

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Contacts

For any questions related to eligibility, the verification process, appeals, rechecks, or reports, you can contact Welo through the official channels listed on welobadge.com.

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Requests will be handled by the Welo team and managed according to the published procedures, with the goal of providing clear, trackable responses that are consistent with the standard.

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