Cheap Barcodes

I’ve seen barcodes that come with annual license fees and membership fees – but I want cheap barcodes. How can you sell cheap barcodes for a one-off cost?

Basically, our numbers come from the same original system as GS1 barcode numbers and are still part of their system. However, GS1 has lost control of these numbers entirely, and hence they can be sold without adding all of the various fees that GS1 insists upon. (This is how you avoid GS1 barcode fees)

Please see below for a detailed summary of what has occurred for this to happen:

In the 1990s, GS1 was established in most parts of the world. They licensed their 13-digit barcode numbers to their members (and, as discussed previously, charged both membership fees and joining fees). However, there was a separate organisation in the USA – the Uniform Code Council (UCC) – which sold 12 digit barcode numbers to their members for a one-off cost (there were no ongoing license fees). The UCC was effectively competing with GS1. Their 12 digits numbers were effectively a subset of the 13 digit system.

In the late 1990s, the UCC merged with GS1, becoming GS1-US. As part of this change, they decided to start charging annual license fees for all of their members, including those who had paid a one-off fee for barcode numbers in the 1990s. Of course, many of these members weren’t happy with the new annual license fees, and so a group of them ended up in a class-action lawsuit with GS1. The members won in the courts in the early 2000s, resulting in a multimillion-dollar settlement by GS1. A further consequence of this court case is the proof that the original numbers issued by the UCC in the 1990s are outside of GS1s control now, and hence no license fees are required. These are the numbers. They are bought by a barcode reseller and onsold. They are ‘new’ numbers in that they have never been used on a retail product and are part of the GS1 system.

I’ve seen cheaper barcodes elsewhere?

Occasionally we come across companies offering 1000 barcodes for $16USD (or some ridiculously low price). We bought some of these stupidly cheap barcodes to test (1000 for $16), and they weren’t worth using – we wouldn’t trust them to print on any product.

Usually, these companies aren’t around for long or are very difficult to contact. In many cases, the barcodes they sell are not legitimate retail barcodes. Buying barcodes at these cheap barcode prices is a false economy. While you may save a few £ £ on buying the barcodes, that doesn’t even compare to the amount it will cost to reprint your product packaging and swap out the barcodes if the barcodes do turn out to be non-legitimate.

We can prove that our barcode numbers are legitimate EAN-13 numbers that have never been used legally before (until you). Furthermore, we check all our numbers for illegal use before sale so that at the time of sale, you can be sure no one is illegally using them. There are many other advantages to our barcodes. Please see our why to buy from us page for more details. If you are ready to purchase, please see our products page. Look here for CD barcodes, DVD barcodes, ISBN book barcodes and ISSN magazine barcodes.