Another issue to watch out for is takeovers. On occasion, ethical brands get taken over by unethical companies.
For example in December 2017, ethical brands Ecover and Method were taken over by multinational SC Johnson.
SC Johnson has links to animal testing and so in April 2018 campaign group Naturewatch launched a campaign asking supporters and the general public to contact Ecover and Method, expressing their disappointment at the takeover and pledging to boycott the company and its products until SC Johnson is cruelty-free.
Ecover and Method are themselves cruelty-free and remain Leaping Bunny certified but are no longer endorsed by Naturewatch because of the parent company.
The takeover also led to Ecover and Method both losing marks in our ethical rankings.
Ecover dropped from an Ethiscore of 11.5 points to 7.
Method dropped from an Ethiscore of 12 points to 7.
SC Johnson (and therefore Method and Ecover) now lose marks for scoring a worst rating in many of the Ethical Consumer categories. This includes a worst rating for animal testing, environmental reporting, likely use of tax avoidance strategies, and toxics.