UPC and EAN barcodes: what GS1 licensing means for sellers
A UPC or EAN barcode is a picture of a number, a GTIN (Global Trade Item Number). Anyone can draw a barcode of any number, but the number itself is issued under license by GS1, the standards body, through its national member organizations (GS1 US in the United States). If you plan to sell on marketplaces that check GTINs, it is worth knowing what you are and are not allowed to do with those numbers. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
The short version
- A GS1 company prefix is licensed to one company. The GS1 US license agreement says prefixes and identification keys may not be sold, leased, sublicensed or subdivided for use by others, with special transfer rules for a sale or merger of a business.
- That means a number bought from a third-party seller of “cheap UPCs” remains registered to someone else in the GS1 database, however it was obtained. Some marketplaces check this. GS1 US notes that Amazon says it verifies UPCs against the GS1 database and quotes Seller Central as saying to obtain UPCs directly from GS1.
- Products that already carry a manufacturer's barcode should keep it. You generally do not make a new barcode for a product someone else makes and has already numbered. For products you brand yourself, you license your own numbers.
- Barcodes that are only for your own internal use (shelf bins, stock counts, your own SKUs) do not need GS1 numbers at all. A Code 128 barcode of your own SKU text is a common choice.
Checklist before you buy or print anything
- Decide whether the code leaves your building. If it is only for your own warehouse, use your own SKU as a Code 128 barcode, or a number you make up that does not look like a retail GTIN.
- Ask the marketplace what it requires. Read the current product-identifier rules in your seller account's help pages. They change.
- If you need GTINs for your own branded products, apply to your national GS1 member organization (GS1 US in the US, a different organization in each other country). Prices and fees change, so check the current ones there.
- Keep the paperwork. Marketplaces can ask for proof (GS1 US describes a company prefix or GTIN certificate) that a number is licensed to you.
- Calculate or verify the check digit of each number before printing. See our guide on calculating a GTIN check digit by hand.
What a barcode tool can and cannot do
Software that draws barcodes cannot tell whether a number is licensed to you. It can check that the last digit matches the arithmetic. Barloom works this way: it validates the check digit, draws the code you give it, and shows a notice that UPC and EAN numbers must be licensed from GS1. It does not issue numbers.
This is a summary of public GS1 material, not legal advice, and each marketplace and each GS1 member organization has its own current rules. No tool or guide here has any connection with GS1 or any marketplace.
Sources
- GS1 US, Company Prefix and Identification Key License Agreement, 2025 (PDF), section 1 "License": https://documents.gs1us.org/adobe/assets/deliver/urn:aaid:aem:288a53a6-5e48-410f-8b15-d95ba4017b5c/GS1-US-Company-Prefix-and-Identification-Key-License-Agreement-2025.pdf (read 2026-10-28 as a search-index excerpt)
- GS1 US, "Globally Accepted Amazon UPCs & Product Barcodes": https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/amazon/barcodes-for-amazon (read 2026-10-28 as a search-index excerpt)
- GS1, "EAN/UPC barcodes": https://www.gs1.org/standards/barcodes/ean-upc (read 2026-10-27)
Related tool: Barloom. Estimates and guidance only; check the source documents before relying on a figure.