The EAN-UCC System is a set of standards, that permits an efficient management of global and multi-sector supplies, identifying with exclusivity the products, logistics units, locations, assets and services. It facilitates the electronic commerce processes, proposing solutions structured for electronic messages, making the total traceability of operations feasible .

The identification numbers may be represented by bar code symbols to enable the electronic (optical) reading at the point of sale, upon receiving at warehouses or in any other stage, where the capture of data is necessary for the business processes. The System is designed to overcome the limitations resulting from the use of specific (restricted) encoding in a sector, organization or company, and to make commerce much more efficient and customer related.

Besides providing exclusive identification numbers, the System also provides additional information, such as expiration dates, serial numbers and lot numbers represented in a bar code form. These identification numbers are also used in electronic data interchange (EDI) messages - in order to increase the speed and accuracy of communication.

The EAN-UCC System offers EANCOMstructured messaging standards for EDI, based on EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport) prepared by UNO.

The EAN.UCC System can be applied by companies for the solution of the most varied needs in business automation: Identification, Traceability, Electronic Commerce, Commercial Automation and logistic integration .

These applications depend on standardized numbering structures, through which all items and information involved can be identified. The numbers which are the keys to access the data banks and unequivocally identify the items within all messages of a commercial transaction are purely destined to identification, and do not have any meaning. All information describing a product or service will be found in the data banks. They are communicated by the supplier to the user once, before the first transaction, either by means of standardized messages or referring to electronic catalogs. The means in which to inform such data must be agreed upon between the commercial partners. The numbers are represented in bar codes, which allow automatic data capture at each automated point in which an item is moved. The same numbers are also used in messages of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) to allow all information about the commercialized items transaction to be transferred to the involved partners. The EAN.UCC numbering structures assure worldwide exclusivity in the identification of items in the System application area.

In the specific solution regarding the identification need, for instance, the EAN.UCC System is the basis for the best practices: (1) commercial items, (2) logistic units, (3) locations, (4) assets; (5) services lists and (6) special applications (coupons; reimbursement receipts; internal applications; electronic goods serial identification; collection slips; specific consumption articles).

With the expansion of global trade and computerisation, plain language descriptions of products and services need to be replaced by identification systems that are usable in all trade and industry sectors world-wide.

The EAN.UCC system has been developed to meet this need by providing solutions that guarantees unique and unambiguous identification. Manufacturers, exporters, importers, hospitals, wholesalers, retailers, etc. can use the system to communicate information regarding the goods or services they trade.

These unique identification numbers can be represented by bar code symbols. This enables inexpensive and accurate data capture thus providing the required information at all points of the supply chain.

One of the main concepts of the EAN.UCC system is that any item (product or service) upon which there is a need to retrieve pre-defined information and that may be priced or ordered or invoiced at any point in any supply chain. can be allocated a unique identification number - the Global Trade Item Number, or GTIN for short.

A GTIN can be constructed using four numbering structures (explained below) depending upon the exact application and the bar code symbology to be used. However, in databases all GTIN are unique and unambiguous when right justified in a 14-digit field.