Rainforest Alliance new Claims platform & FAQ

Please note the following information does not apply to design agencies and Forest Allies.

1.  Register your organization account in the RACP by clicking this link and selecting the appropriate registration option. Note: Select the registration option “Other organization” only if you are not in scope for certification. 
2. Once your account has been approved and you have logged in, upload or sign a License Agreement (2020 Version).
   • If you already have a valid License Agreement (2020 Version), please upload it to the RACP.
   •  If you have not signed a License Agreement (2020 Version) yet, please request and sign it in the RACP. You can sign it with DocuSign or print, sign, and upload the document. 
   • You can find more information on how to upload and/or sign in the “License Agreement (2020 Version)” chapter of the User Manual.
3.  If you are required to obtain a certification license, consult this page to get started.  You will only be able to receive approval for your claims once you have obtained a certification license. 
4. To access the Claims platform, simply navigate to the “Claims” tab of your RACP account.

If you are a design agency and were registered in Marketplace 2.0., you are now required to register your organization in the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) by following this link to create an account and continue submitting approval requests. 

Once logged in, you will directly land on the Claims page from which you can access the platform, by clicking on “Go to your Claims account”. Note that you can only access your Claims account if at least one of your clients has added your organization as a delegate. For more information, consult the Delegation Process section of this article.

1. Forest Allies are required to register their organization in the RACP and create an account to continue submitting claim requests.  Register as Forest Allies in the RACP.
2. Once logged in, you will directly land on the Claims page from which you can access the platform, by clicking on “Go to your Claims account”.

A claim is a story about your product or your ingredient that is assured, verified, and compliant with our standard and guidelines. Whether you want to use our certification seal on your products or add a general statement about your sustainability commitments related to your partnership with the Rainforest Alliance on your website, a claim helps you in raising consumer awareness. In all cases, use of claims must be submitted in the new platform for review and approval by the Rainforest Alliance.  

As part of our continuous improvement, a new platform was introduced which is more agile and has more efficient functionalities. Its use will enable the Rainforest Alliance to explore additional claims opportunities for you in the future. 

You will not need a separate login to access the new platform. Instead, you will need to log in to the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP), and you will be able to access the platform directly via the “Claims” tab in your account.

Please follow the instructions in this article to get access to the RACP.

Approved requests (within their validity period) and their associated SKUs from RA2020 accounts have been migrated to the new Claims platform. 

Requests that have not been migrated because they were made from a legacy UTZ or RA2017 account must be resubmitted for approval in the new Claims platform if you wish to continue selling the associated SKUs with a claim. All other data from Marketplace 2.0 can be requested from our Customer Success team, who have access to historical information.

No, you will not be required to resubmit trademark requests approved in Marketplace 2.0 under the requirement that these were linked to your RA2020 account.

If you did not request consolidation of your Marketplace 2.0 legacy accounts (UTZ/RA2017 accounts with RA2020 account), approved requests were not migrated to the Claims platform. If you wish to continue selling your products after the expiration date specified in Marketplace, you must submit a new request in the Claims platform.

Approved requests within their validity period but linked to an UTZ or RA2017 account have not been migrated to the Claims platform. This data has been moved to an archive accessible by Rainforest Alliance Staff, please consult customersuccess@ra.org for data collection. To request an extension for these requests you will need to submit a new approval request in the Claims platform.

No, it is not possible to request to be added as a delegate through the system. Only the organization(s) delegating the approval request activities can add organizations as delegates. We recommend you contact your Brand Owner or Retailer to ask them to initiate the delegation process in RACP. Please refer to Chapter 2 in the Claims Platform User Manual for further information on the exact process.

The delegation process can only be done via our system, it is not possible to use another format. Please refer to Chapter 2 in the Claims Platform User Manual for further information on the exact process.

Delegation is only mandatory for brand owners and/or retailers to do if they want other organizations to submit approval requests for them. The other option is for the brand owner/retailer to submit the request themselves.

No, that is not possible. In this case, the brand owner first needs to register in the RACP and sign the legal agreement. After that, they must set up a delegation in the RACP for the organization which is submitting approvals on their behalf.

No, the brand owner will not receive such notifications, unless the delegate has added an email address of the brand owner in the field “further recipients”.

Delegates can be removed by the organization that sets up the delegation. Please refer to Chapter 2 of the Claims manual to see how to proceed. The delegated organization has also the option to revoke the delegation in the “Organizations authorizations” page of the RACP.

The different Trademarks types to be selected in the new request form are:

It is not possible to update the selected TM type (seal) in the request form. You will need to cancel the request form and start a new request form. A new request needs to be submitted if changes need to be made to the type of seal selected. 

To upload a product in an approval request you must indicate in the request form that the material relates to a specific product. You must then select the Brand and indicate if you are the manufacturer of the product. The request form will then allow you to upload the product(s) you would like to get approval for. 

You can use ‘Add’ and ‘Copy Product’ to upload multiple products (SKU’s) in the same request. 

To edit the information in the product(s) you have just added to your request, select the product, and click on the button “Edit”.

To delete a product from your approval request, select the product and click on the button “Delete”.

Note: You can request approval for multiple products (SKU’s) in the same request only if they have the same brand and the same manufacturer.

Go to the ‘All Requests’ overview, here you will find a full overview of all your requests and their different status. With the filter functionality, you can filter out the approved requests. To download the approval letter, select the request (in status approved or approved with exception) and click on “Download Approval Letter”. 

Please refer to Chapter 7.4 in the Claims Platform User Manual for further information. 

You will receive emails if the request needs changes or if it is approved. You can choose if you want to receive notifications or not. Approval letters are to be downloaded from the Claims platform. For expiring claims, you will get an email notification 3 months before the end of the validation date, 1 month before the end of the validation date, and on the day of the validation ending itself.

Please see Chapter 10.1 in the Claims Platform User Manual for more information on email settings.

As a manufacturer and if you have been added as a delegate by a brand owner, you can create both brands and products for the brand owner that you are delegated for.

Yes, it is possible to add a comment/reference number when adding a product in your Brands and Products overview and/or in the request form itself.

Yes, you will find all claims approval request templates created by any user in your organization’s account in the “Claims Templates” tab of the Claims platform.

The distribution countries are saved in a Claims Template. The saved templates functionality has been introduced to submit requests in a faster way. Use this functionality when submitting a new approval request with similar characteristics, e.g., the same type of trademark, product, and brand.

More information can be found in Chapter 7.7 of the Claims Platform User Manual.

Approvals that will expire in 3 months or have expired in the last 3 months can be extended on the Claims platform. A prerequisite is that there are no further changes to the request (e.g., certified crop percentage, distribution countries, product, brand information, etc.) and the uploaded material.

To extend a request, navigate to “Home” and click on “Expiring Approvals.” Here you can only find requests that are eligible for an extension.