Global bar-code standard

The verdict is in. The global bar-code standard will adopt the 13-digit European Article Numbering (EAN) code rather than the 12-digit Uniform Code Council bar code used in the United States and Canada.

reported by Cecelia Blalock

Aug 31st, 2004

The UCC, North America’s standard setter of bar codes, informed U.S. retailers that their bar-code scanners will need to be able to read 13 digits by January 1, 2005. That change means retooling software programs. When the Europeans established their bar-code standard in 1977, three years after the UCC, they added another digit. Over time, the 13-digit code came to be used by most nations. As a further sign of globalization, in 2005 the two standard-setting bodies, EAN International and UCC, will combine to form GS1, headquartered in Brussels. More than 5 billion bar-coded products are scanned daily.

GS1 US

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