US adds one more digit

In the tug-of-war of trade rules and technology standards, globalisation of the bar code represents a small erosion of American industrial hegemony. Europe won this one: the global bar code standard will be the European Article Numbering Code.

The difference between the American and the European bar code standards is a matter of digits. When the Europeans set up their bar code in 1977, they decided they needed extra digital space for more products and identifying countries there were 12 nations in the European Community. So the European code has 13 digits, while the code used in the US and Canada has 12.

The Uniform Code Council, the North American arbiter of bar codes, has told North American retailers that scanners will have to read the 13-digit code by January 2005.

8212; NYT