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A European Article Number (EAN) is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) system developed in North America. It is also called a Japanese Article Number (JAN) in Japan. UPC, EAN, and JAN numbers are collectively called Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN), though they can be expressed in different kinds of barcodes.

The EAN-13 barcodes are used worldwide for marking retail goods. The symbol encodes 13 numerals:

  • The first two or three are a system code, usually identifying the country in which the manufacturer is registered (not necessarily where the product is actually made). This can be replaced with 978 or 979 for ISBNs, or 977 for ISSNs.

  • The country code is followed by 9 or 10 data digits (depending on the length of the country code)
    • For ISBN barcodes, this consists of the publisher and the item number

  • It ends by a single digit checksum computed modulo 10, where the weights in the checksum calculation alternate 1 and 3. In particular, since the weights are relatively prime to 10 the EAN system will detect all single digit errors. But since the difference of consecutive weights is even, the EAN system does not detect all adjacent transposition errors.

2-digit and 5-digit supplemental barcodes may be added for a total of 14 or 17 data digits.

The EAN-13 barcode is defined by the standards organisation GS1.

Country codes

The first three digits of the barcode of any product represents the country. Note that EAN codes beginning with 0 are rarely used, as this is just an addition to 12-digit UPC. Since most scanners and registers worldwide can read both equally, most manufacturers in North America still only use UPC.

  • 000 - 019 USA & Canada
  • 020 - 029 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
  • 030 - 039 USA & Canada drugs (see U.S. National Drug Code)
  • 040 - 049 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
  • 050 - 059 coupons
  • 060 - 099 USA & Canada

See also

External links

Barcodes | Identifiers | Universal Identifiers

EAN | EAN | Code-barre EAN | EAN | Hội đồng mã sản phẩm thống nhất châu Âu | 欧洲商品编码

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "European Article Number".

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