Method and limits

Where the platform's data comes from, how we handle it, and what our tools cannot do. When any of this changes, this page changes too.

We compare against ten lists, each downloaded directly from its publisher: — European Union — Consolidated Financial Sanctions List — United Nations — Security Council Consolidated List — United States — OFAC SDN List — United States — Commerce, State and Treasury trade lists (Entity List, Denied Persons, Unverified, Military End-User and others) — United Kingdom — UK Sanctions List — Switzerland — SECO sanctions list — Canada — SEMA list — Czechia — national sanctions list — EU — military end-users (Annex IV to Regulation 833/2014) — EU — vessels banned from ports (Annex XLII to Regulation 833/2014) Lists are refreshed at least every six hours; the Czech list and the Regulation annexes once a day.

The Sanctions section has 20 list cards. Nine are EU: the full EU list plus eight programme views, such as Russia, Belarus, Iran and circumvention via third countries. The others are the UN, US (OFAC and trade), UK, Swiss, Canadian and Czech lists and two annexes to Regulation 833/2014. Two cards — dual-use goods and China's export controls — have no list of names; they describe restrictions on goods.

A list card searches one list. Counterparty screening, Before loading and Vessel screening compare against all ten at once. Every result shows which list it came from, the date of that list's version and the fingerprint of the file we read, and can be downloaded as a PDF record. If a publisher releases a broken file, we say so next to the result — it is never shown as “no match”. The list archive stores each record with the period it was in force, so the state on a past date can be checked from the day the archive started.

How matching works: we strip diacritics, transliterate Cyrillic and Greek into Latin script and split the name into words. We search every name on a record (one person often has ten spellings) and word order does not matter. A name match means every distinctive word matches on both sides — a company’s legal form (Ltd, LLC, OOO…) does not count, and generic words such as a country or a line of business (“International Trading”) never make a match on their own. Typos are still caught: one letter, two in a long word. We also compare the numbers the lists carry — company numbers, INN, OGRN, LEI, IMO, MMSI — and, for persons, the date of birth. For each hit you see exactly what matched. Company owners are shown from public registers (GLEIF, RPO, RPVS, ARES, Polish KRS, Latvian and Estonian registers) with each name compared against the lists; we do not add up holdings through the chain and do not say whether a company falls under the 50% rule — the official texts are linked next to the owners.

No match does not mean the company or person is not listed. It means we found no similar name for what you typed — so every such result links to the official list. A result is not approval of a business partner and does not replace your own due diligence.

Each entry shows the act number, the issuing authority, the dates of adoption and entry into force, and a link. The text published by the authority is what counts. Our summary only restates what the act says — it never tells you what it means for you.

The “as of date” view shows what was in force on a given day. That is why old versions are archived, not deleted.

We collect news from ten sources. Three come straight from authorities: the European Commission, the UK's OFSI and GOV.UK. Seven are news searches, because the Council of the EU, OFAC and the UN do not answer automated requests from our server. A row marked “media” is a report about a decision, not the decision itself. Only the official text is binding.

The “relevant to me” filter matches headline words against your saved markets and customs chapters. It helps you sort. If a row is hidden, that does not mean it does not concern you.

The map in the client zone has eleven layers: — Ships — AIS Stream positions on the corridors we cover, not every ship in the world — Straits and ports — the straits and ports on members' routes, linked to daily ship counts (IMF PortWatch) — Internet outages — IODA project (Georgia Tech), reported by country — Earthquakes — USGS, each linked to its own record — Alerts and disasters — GDACS (Commission and UN) — Weather near routes — Copernicus EMS and NOAA, only events close to our routes — Strikes and closures — notices from port and railway operators, with a link — Sanctioned ports — Annex XLVII to Regulation 833/2014 and the OFAC list; listed vessels are marked — My containers — only the signed-in member's containers — Our routes — our own drawing of the corridors by sea, road and rail, not a recorded voyage — Market events — GDELT news index; each point links to the articles

Figures change between refreshes. Each layer shows the time its data is from. Times are shown in your browser's time zone.

The layers give an overview, not a complete record. We show what the source reports and when.

Corridors are the routes we cover. The number of days for each corridor was written by someone who knows the route and includes borders and transhipment. We add the leg from your city to the corridor and from the corridor to the destination: distance divided by a normal day's travel (truck 600 km, rail 500, sea 400, air 5,000 including waiting for handling).

We do not know prices in euros, carriers' departures and capacity, customs clearance times by type of goods, or seasonal swings. That is why price is shown as a ranking (cheaper — more expensive), not an amount.

Every figure in the market profiles names the authority that published it and the date it was last checked. Other parts of the platform use these public sources: — Tariffs and measures — TARIC (EU) and WITS (World Bank) — Trade and demand — Eurostat and the Atlas of Economic Complexity (Harvard) — Companies — business registers (RPO and RÚZ in Slovakia, ARES in Czechia and registers of other countries), GLEIF, VIES and EORI — Exchange rates — European Central Bank — Tenders and calls — TED, the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, ITMS21+ and MS2021+ — Customs offices — EU Customs Office List (COL)

When a source does not respond, we say so. We never fill in missing data ourselves.

The OSINT directory links to outside services. Whatever you type there goes to them, under their rules. We send them nothing and cannot see what you enter. Only an official register is a reliable source; everything else needs checking.

These tools are for checking a business partner. They must not be used to track private individuals or to get around access restrictions.

Write to us. Anything we cannot verify, we correct or remove. If an error could have affected someone's decision, we tell the people concerned.