GS1 prefix reference

Barcode country codes tell you who issued the number, not where the product was made.

The first two or three digits of an EAN-13 identify the GS1 Member Organisation that licensed the company prefix. That is a useful signal for tracing a supplier, and a misleading one for country of origin.

Trace identifier sources in Nexodo See the GTIN format reference

Prefix

The opening digits identify the issuing GS1 organisation.

Not origin

It does not indicate where the item was manufactured.

Reserved ranges

Some ranges are books, coupons or internal use only.

The ranges

A working extract of the GS1 prefix ranges.

GS1 allocates blocks of prefixes to its Member Organisations, and each Member Organisation licenses company prefixes from within its block. A company that licenses its prefix from GS1 US receives a number starting in the US block regardless of where it manufactures, which is why a product made in Vietnam can carry a barcode that opens with a United States range.

The extract below covers the ranges most likely to appear in a catalog. Confirm any range you intend to act on against the current GS1 prefix list, because allocations are updated as Member Organisations are added.

Prefix range	Allocated to	Notes
000 to 019, 030 to 039, 060 to 139	GS1 US	Includes the UPC-A number space.
020 to 029, 040 to 049, 200 to 299	Restricted distribution	Internal or in-store use, never publish these.
300 to 379	GS1 France and Monaco	379 covers Monaco.
400 to 440	GS1 Germany
450 to 459, 490 to 499	GS1 Japan
500 to 509	GS1 UK
540 to 549	GS1 Belgium and Luxembourg
690 to 699	GS1 China
729	GS1 Israel
754 to 755	GS1 Canada
760 to 769	GS1 Switzerland
800 to 839	GS1 Italy
840 to 849	GS1 Spain
870 to 879	GS1 Netherlands
880 to 881	GS1 South Korea
890	GS1 India
893	GS1 Vietnam
899	GS1 Indonesia
930 to 939	GS1 Australia
940 to 949	GS1 New Zealand
977	Serial publications	ISSN, not a country.
978 to 979	Books and music	ISBN and ISMN, not a country.
980 to 984, 990 to 999	Refund receipts and coupons	Not trade items.

What it is good for

Use the prefix to trace the licensee, not to label the origin.

The legitimate use of a prefix in catalog work is triage. If a supplier file arrives with identifiers spanning six different Member Organisation ranges, that is a strong hint the supplier is a reseller aggregating several brands rather than a manufacturer, and the brand field probably needs checking. If a supplier that always sends one range suddenly sends another, something changed upstream.

The illegitimate use is country of origin. Origin is a customs and compliance determination based on where substantial transformation occurred, and it belongs in its own attribute with its own evidence. A prefix cannot substitute for it, and publishing an origin derived from a barcode is a compliance risk rather than a shortcut.

Use the prefix as a supplier triage signal during import review
Keep country of origin as a separate, sourced attribute
Flag restricted-distribution ranges before they reach a channel
Treat 977 to 979 as publications rather than as a country

Restricted ranges

Some identifiers were never meant to leave the building.

The restricted distribution ranges exist so a retailer can number in-store items, such as items weighed at a counter, without licensing a prefix. Those numbers are not unique outside that retailer. When one reaches a shared catalog, usually because it was scanned off a shelf rather than taken from a manufacturer's data, it collides with somebody else's item.

Catch these at import. An identifier that opens with 02, 04 or 2 is either a restricted-distribution number that should not be published, or a transcription error, and both cases need a human decision before the record is approved.

Ranges 020 to 029, 040 to 049 and 200 to 299 are internal use
Coupon ranges are not trade item identifiers
Reject restricted identifiers at import rather than at publish
Record why an identifier was rejected so the supplier can be told

Frequently asked questions

Clear answers before you evaluate a PIM.

Does a barcode starting with 690 mean the product was made in China?

No. It means the company that licensed the prefix did so from GS1 China. A brand headquartered in China can manufacture anywhere, and a brand headquartered elsewhere can license a Chinese prefix for a local subsidiary.

How do I find the country of origin properly?

Ask the supplier for it as a declared attribute and keep the declaration as evidence. Origin is a customs determination and it changes when production moves, so it needs to be re-confirmed rather than derived once from an identifier.

Why do some of my identifiers start with a 2?

They are almost certainly restricted-distribution numbers created inside a store or a warehouse. They are not globally unique and should not be published to a channel. Treat them as a data quality exception and go back to the manufacturer for a real GTIN.

Is the prefix list stable?

Mostly, but ranges are added as GS1 Member Organisations change. The list above is an extract for catalog triage. Confirm any range you plan to encode into a rule against the current published GS1 prefix list.

Continue your product data research

GTIN format reference

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Barcode country codes tell you who issued the number, not where the product was made.

A working extract of the GS1 prefix ranges.

Use the prefix to trace the licensee, not to label the origin.

Some identifiers were never meant to leave the building.

Clear answers before you evaluate a PIM.

Continue your product data research

GTIN formats, digit lengths, and how to store them without breaking them.

Every product identifier your catalog carries, and what each one is actually unique across.

Find the catalog problems that block a confident purchase.

Onboard supplier product data without surrendering control.

Test Nexodo with a supplier file your team already uses.