Cotton Egypt Association (CEA), the non-profit which supports the Egyptian Cotton brand, has launched an initiative to root out counterfeiters in the textile industry and will name and shame the manufacturers found to be falsely advertising stock under the brand name.

CEA is committed to ensuring the authenticity of its luxury cotton and to do so wants to eradicate cases of counterfeiting, an issue that is rife in the textiles industry. It will clamp down on the wide-scale problem with threats of naming and shaming those firms who fail the rigorous accreditation scheme via a Black List on its website.

The non-profit plans to use secret shoppers both in-store and online to identify products which purport to use Egyptian Cotton, this will then be handed over to CEA and its partner, testing and verification body Bureau Veritas, which will conduct testing to validate the authenticity of a product.

Those found to be in possession of dubious stock, like a Pakistani towel manufacturer which has recently had its licence suspended off the back of being found out, will be named and shamed as to deter companies from engaging in such practices, it also raises awareness to customers and consumers that a company isn’t to be trusted.