What companies hide, The Counter reveals

In South America, an Indigenous community was struggling to defend their land from a forestry company clearing vast swathes of native forests for industrial monoculture plantations. The local impacts were clear: displacement, deforestation, and the loss of traditional livelihoods. But the international links remained out of reach. They turned to The Counter to help identify the buyers and financial backers, enabling this destruction.

Global supply chains are designed to conceal the human and environmental costs. But they often leave behind a trail of abuse: communities uprooted, rivers polluted, and workers exploited.

The links to those responsible — the corporations profiting from it— are often hidden behind a web of mines, factories and producers. Companies rely on the fact that the full picture is hard to see and even harder to prove.

For activists, civil society organisations, journalists, and communities, this creates a familiar and frustrating roadblock: the injustice is clear, yet identifying the entity ultimately responsible seems nearly impossible.

That’s where The Counter comes in: SOMO’s pro bono helpdesk that provides in-depth corporate research and supply chain investigations to support those confronting corporate harm. We help uncover and clarify the links between harm and profit, piecing together scattered data to reveal how companies, investors, and buyers are linked to abuse.

“The credibility and depth of The Counter’s research have added significant weight to our advocacy efforts.”

— Anonymous (Names withheld for security reasons).

Investigating supply chains linked to labour abuse

Many labour organisations approach The Counter with one crucial need: proof. Proof that brands sourcing from abusive factories are not as distant or unaccountable as they seem. Links between factories and brands are rarely public, creating significant barriers for labour groups trying to improve workers’ conditions.

In one instance, labour rights activists supporting Bangladeshi migrant workers came to The Counter with concerns about a Malaysian factory exploiting its workforce. By looking into trade databases and customs records, The Counter identified major buyers in Japan, Australia, and the U.S., providing solid evidence that connected the factory’s abuses to multinational brands like Sony and Panasonic. These findings gave activists greater leverage when confronting buyers and served as strong evidence in cases and complaints, including those filed with National Contact Points established under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises(opens in new window) .

“The Counter’s support was very helpful in understanding and mapping more clearly global supply chain information and thereby exposing and more effectively addressing social injustices and human rights abuses.”

— Andy Hall, Human rights defender and independent migrant worker rights specialist

In another case, a labour rights group working with a Thai trade union needed evidence that German companies were sourcing from a garment factory in Thailand where workers had been dismissed without notice and denied their wages. The group planned to file a complaint under the German Supply Chain Act(opens in new window) , which holds companies accountable for exploitation throughout their global supply chains. The Counter dug into trade databases and uncovered shipment records linking the factory to German buyers, evidence that the group intends to use in their complaint.

Exposing the supply chains that fuel war

Beyond factories and fields, The Counter also supports investigations into companies enabling gross human rights violations and war crimes. Supply chains tied to military and dual-use goods are especially opaque, but often the most urgent to trace. Even when information exists, it’s usually fragmented across isolated sources, making it difficult for activists to see the full picture.

After Myanmar’s military coup in 2021, an NGO approached The Counter to track exports of European machinery parts potentially reaching the military regime. The Counter found evidence of shipments routed through neighbouring countries by searching customs data, helping the organisation pursue its own investigation and prepare international campaigns against the companies involved.

“The Counter researchers have access to databases and source materials that weren’t on our radar, making it both a check and a supplement to our own research.”

— Anonymous (Names withheld for security reasons)

The Counter has also responded to several requests from human rights defenders in Palestine and elsewhere, seeking information about companies supplying the means for Israel’s genocide and war crimes in Gaza. Our team uncovered various supplies to the Israeli government, including shipments of military jet fuel for the Israeli Air Force. By combining public procurement records, trade data, and vessel tracking systems, The Counter provided evidence used by activists to call on governments and companies to stop supporting the war and to take direct action at ports to block ships bound for Israel from docking.

The Counter: Your ally in the fight for justice

Corporate harm survives in the shadows. The Counter exists to bring those hidden links into the light, supporting activists, communities, and journalists fighting for justice.

When evidence feels out of reach, we help you find it.
When harm is denied, we help you prove it.
And when connecting the dots seems impossible, we dig for the information that reveals the full story.

If you are confronting corporate abuse and need investigative support, The Counter is ready to work with you.