The origin marks
byeurope.eu classifies every listed company with up to four independent origin marks — European Brand, Made in EU, Designed / Developed in EU, and EU Compliance Ready. Each mark always carries its evidence level: self-declared, document-verified, or third-party audited. A claim is never displayed as verified unless documents have actually been reviewed.
EU-owned and EU-headquartered; production can be anywhere.
The company is domiciled in the EU per the national company register; where relevant, the trademark owner in the EUIPO register is EU-domiciled.
evidence: registry domicile · EUIPO owner
Last substantial transformation carried out in an EU member state.
“Made in EU” follows the non-preferential origin rules of the Union Customs Code: the last substantial, economically justified processing took place in an EU member state — not merely packaging or assembly of imported parts.
evidence: origin declaration · supplier invoices · BOI ruling
R&D and design in the EU; production outside. The honest middle tier.
Research, development and design demonstrably take place in the EU while manufacturing occurs outside the EU. This mark never implies EU origin of the goods themselves.
evidence: R&D site · design registrations
EU-established responsible entity; CE marking and declarations available.
An EU-established responsible economic operator exists, and CE marking / Declarations of Conformity (plus EPD or energy-label registrations where applicable) are available on request.
evidence: responsible entity · CE / DoC
The fill of a mark encodes how much has been proven. Color itself carries the trust level — an outlined mark is a claim, a filled mark is reviewed evidence.
| Level | Mark | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| self-declared | MADE IN EU Made in EU — Last substantial transformation carried out in an EU member state. self-declared | The company states the claim itself. No documents have been reviewed by byeurope.eu. Self-declared marks are shown outlined, in slate — never in the verified colors. |
| document-verified | MADE IN EU Made in EU — Last substantial transformation carried out in an EU member state. document-verified | byeurope.eu has reviewed supporting documents: origin declarations, supplier invoices, registry extracts, or a Binding Origin Information ruling. Only this level may use the word “verified”. |
| third-party audited | MADE IN EU Made in EU — Last substantial transformation carried out in an EU member state. third-party audited | An independent third party has audited the claim on site. Rolled out per industry vertical, later — never before the review capacity exists. |
“Made in EU” is a legal statement, not a mood: under the Union Customs Code it requires the last substantial transformation to have taken place in an EU member state. A single binary “European” flag would blur EU-owned brands producing in Asia together with actual EU production — which is exactly the confusion this registry exists to remove.
That is why the four marks are independent, why a company can honestly hold “European Brand” and “Designed in EU” without “Made in EU”, and why the evidence level is displayed next to every single mark, everywhere it appears.
definitions follow the Union Customs Code (non-preferential origin) and the EU Empowering Consumers directive · last reviewed 2026