How we rate a brand
The score says how European a brand is, from 1 to 5 stars. It follows fixed rules applied to sourced facts, so you can check any brand page against this text. Where a fact could not be verified, the page says so instead of guessing.
Control, not shares
The first question is who ultimately controls the brand: who can decide what the company does. A parent company, a founding family, a foundation, a state, a private-equity owner or a share class with extra voting rights can all establish control. Passive index funds, ordinary free float, the stock exchange a company is listed on, bottlers and licensees do not. A brand whose products are made under licence in Europe is still controlled from wherever its owner decides.
When control cannot be established from a source, the brand is not rated. That is a correct outcome, not a gap we fill with a guess.
Country tiers
Each country belongs to one tier:
| Tier | Meaning |
|---|---|
| EU | Member state of the European Union |
| EEA | Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway |
| Europe | Geographically European, outside the EU and EEA, such as Switzerland or the United Kingdom |
| Other | Outside Europe |
The facts the score reads
Four facts, each with a source on the brand page:
- the country or countries from which the brand is controlled;
- the brand’s own headquarters, never the parent company’s;
- where the products sold in Europe are made, when the brand makes physical products;
- large shareholders outside Europe, when the brand is European-controlled.
The stars
Every applicable rule is evaluated and the lowest result wins. A known 3-star fact is never hidden by a 4-star one.
| Stars | Condition |
|---|---|
| 5 | Control and headquarters in the EU or EEA, no large shareholders outside Europe left unresearched, and, for physical products, most European sales made inside the EU or EEA |
| 4 | European facts outside the EU and EEA, or a verification gap that stops 5 stars, with no 3-star condition |
| 3 | European control with headquarters outside Europe, most production outside Europe, or shareholders outside Europe holding at least 25% together |
| 2 | Control outside Europe, with verified and meaningful production in the EU or EEA |
| 1 | Control outside Europe, without established meaningful production in the EU or EEA |
| Not rated | No established controlling country |
A store or a service that makes nothing skips the production rule. Its 5 stars mean European ownership, not that anything is made anywhere.
Large shareholders outside Europe
For a European-controlled brand we record every shareholder outside Europe with a stake of at least 5%. They count together: several holdings adding up to 25% or more give 3 stars, even while a European owner keeps voting control. When a stake is known to exist but its size is not published, we count the 5% minimum and name the unknown size as a verification gap. When nobody has researched the shareholders yet, the brand can reach 4 stars at most.
Split control
Some brands are controlled from two or more countries, for example a joint venture. Each controller is scored with the same brand facts, the lowest result is taken, and one star is subtracted, with a floor of 1 star. Two EU controllers that would each give 5 stars give 4 together.
Production evidence
Production means where the products sold in Europe are made, not the label on the one item in your hand. A brand can state a region, a list of countries, or a share of European sales made inside Europe, and the rules read each of those the same way:
- Made only in EU or EEA countries: most production is European, and the brand can reach 5 stars.
- Made in European countries including one outside the EU and EEA: European, but 5 stars need the EU or EEA share to be established.
- Made only outside Europe: most production is outside Europe, which caps a European-controlled brand at 3 stars and a brand controlled from outside Europe at 1 star.
- Made both inside and outside Europe: the recorded share decides. A majority inside Europe counts as European production, a minority as production outside Europe, and an unknown share is a gap.
- No production information, or a company that does not publish it: a verification gap, named on the brand page.
For a brand controlled from outside Europe the only production question is whether meaningful production happens in the EU or EEA, which separates 2 stars from 1.
Verification gaps and “not rated”
A brand page lists every fact that is not yet verified, in a fixed order: control, headquarters, production, the share of European production, large shareholders and the size of their stakes. Only unknown control leaves a brand without a score. Every other gap lowers the score or stops it from reaching 5 stars, and stays visible so you can judge for yourself.
Manual overrides
In rare cases the rules cannot express a documented exception. The score can then be set by hand, with a written reason shown on the brand page next to the score the rules would have given. An override never hides the automatic result.
Confidence
Confidence is separate from the score and says how strong the sources are:
- high: primary sources, such as filings, trade registers or the company’s own investor pages;
- medium: one reliable secondary source, such as reputable business press;
- low: best effort, shown as provisional and kept out of top lists.
Which sources count, and which do not, is on the sources page.