GTIN

Listrar summary

A GTIN — Global Trade Item Number — is the number a barcode encodes: 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits naming one trade item at one packaging level, from a single consumer unit to a shipping case. GS1's member organisations license the GS1 Company Prefix a brand builds its GTINs from; the brand allocates the rest, including a check digit that catches typos and scan errors. A Digital Product Passport's resolvable address is a GTIN wearing a web address: a Listrar passport page lives at /01/{gtin}.

Who does it apply to?

• Any product a barcode identifies — most goods sold at retail
• Variant-level identity: a new colour, size or formulation needs its own GTIN
• Case- and pallet-level identifiers (GTIN-14) for logistics, distinct from the consumer unit's own GTIN

Main obligations

• None in law: a GTIN is licensed and allocated, not mandated by statute
• One GTIN per distinct consumer unit — reusing a GTIN across a changed product breaks identity
• Keep the GTIN on the physical product, its barcode and its registry record identical
• Retire a GTIN rather than reassign it once a product is discontinued — GS1's own rule

Key dates

1970s

Retail barcoding introduces the Universal Product Code, the GTIN's ancestor

2005

GS1 forms from the merger of EAN International and the Uniform Code Council

2024

ESPR makes a resolvable product identifier — in practice, usually a GTIN — a regulatory expectation

Products in scope

• Consumer units (GTIN-8, GTIN-12, GTIN-13)
• Cases and pallets (GTIN-14), for shipments rather than individual sale
• Item-level identity, where a passport needs one record per physical unit (batteries, for instance), sits below the GTIN and is usually a serial number

Obligations by actor

Brand

Licenses a GS1 Company Prefix and allocates GTINs from it

Retailer

Scans the GTIN at checkout and in inventory systems

Registry

Resolves /01/{gtin} to the product's public record — what Listrar does

Marketplace

Uses the GTIN to match listings to the same product across sellers

Documents and evidence to keep

• The GS1 Company Prefix licence a brand's GTINs are built from
• The mapping from each GTIN to the product, packaging level and variant it names
• A record of retired GTINs, so a discontinued product's number is never reused

Sanctions and risks

• No legal sanction — the risks are commercial
• A missing or wrong GTIN fails retail scanning and most marketplace listing requirements
• A reused GTIN corrupts every system that assumed the number names one product

Key references

• GS1 GTIN rules — allocation and structure of the four GTIN lengths

Official specification

• GS1 GTIN — standard page