The adoption of the EAN/UCC coding by new companies and the circulation of the system in a  growing number of countries, have placed the conditions for EAN International to rethink a structure capable of guaranteeing the continuity of the system without prejudicing the potentiality for development. It follows that, from the 1st of January 2002, the codes given to the National organisation to new associates will be made up of a 9-digit corporate prefix instead of 7.

The portion that identifies the product code will go from the current 5 to 3 digits; this reduction if finalised to the control of the dispersion currently present in the previous coding: the passage from the 100.000 product codes to 1.000, considered sufficient for the products of a single company, allows the expansion of the number of codes that can be given to new associated companies.

Finally, it will be the care of Indicod to ensure the univocity of the new company prefixes to to avoid any superimpositions with pre-existing 7 digit codes.

If these important innovations concern companies that will adhere to Indicod from the next year, for the ones that are already associated nothing will change: they will maintain, the EAN 7 digit corporate prefix they were given when they subscribed, as well as the capacity to code 100.000 codes; in reference to already coded products, the current codes will remain valid, whereas future items will be coded according to current procedures.

The project for the adoption of the new coding was supported by an analysis of the distributing system, through a study made through questionnaires sent to all the corporate subjects involved; the study, conducted by ACNielsen, IRI Infoscan and with the involvement of Catalina, has indicated its widest guarantee of feasibility, excluding hypotheses of potential negative reflections.

December.2001

Indicod
ACNielsen
IRI Infoscan