Government FAQs
GS1 works closely with international governments and intergovernmental organisations including the UN, WHO, World Bank and regional trade groups. In some countries, GS1 sits within and is an instrument of government, usually within the Department of Commerce. This is the case across a range of Asian and South American economies.
GS1 is a registered not for profit organization in Australia. ion Members pay an annual fee, graduated based on company turnover, therein ensuring the system is made accessible to entities of any size. . Fees are agreed on locally by our board at a level that covers operating costs. GS1 provides optional professional services for which it charges. No revenue is generated from the scanning of barcodes at point of use.
No, all GS1 standards are open standards, freely accessible through GS1 as a public good; That is, GS1 does not charge for obtaining the publications of the standards in any format. All costs associated with the development and ongoing management of the standards in keeping them current, are offset against the membership fees paid globally by those organisations that directly benefit from implementing the standards. GS1 receives no other remuneration from any external body or authority in respect of our standards.. In countries where GS1 Standards are directly recognised and identically adopted as national standards, the national standards bodies may charge users to access those national standards within their own publications.
There is no other equivalent ISO/IEC recognised supply chain standards body that develops sector agnostic standards. GS1 is the de facto global industry standard for the identification of products and the transfer of business information. With over 2M member companies globally, GS1 is the most widely used identification standard in the world.
GS1 runs the Global Standards Management Process (GSMP), whereby standards are created and managed through engagement, bringing together industry experts, technical experts and other stakeholders on a global level.
GS1 is a mission driven organisation originally established by industry to support members improve their supply chain and trade activities. It now also aims to deliver on outcomes related to traceability and sustainability (circularity & packaging) and international trade. Its aim is to improve efficiency of business process and to provide cost savings through automation based on globally unique identification and digital information
GS1 is industry led. All GS1 decisions are agreed through global, regional and country management boards composed of representatives from the industry peak bodies from various industry sectors.
The GS1 Global Standards Management Process (GSMP) is where standards are created and managed through engagement, the bringing together industry experts, technical experts and other stakeholders on a global level where industry can contribute to and influence the activities and ongoing work on global standards.
More than 2M global businesses use GS1 standards. GS1 supports more than 22,500 Australian members – the majority of whom are small to medium sized businesses. Industry uses GS1 standards to simplify and standardise the way organisations throughout the supply chain interact, improving efficiency, safety and saving cost. Some SMEs and larger companies use the GS1 standards for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to send and receive business messages. In some countries, any organisation trading with a government organisation must have the capability to send and receive business messages in electronic form, e.g. Purchase Order, Acknowledgements, Advance Shipping Notice, Remuneration Advice, Payment, Confirmation, Customs Declaration, Bill of Lading, Prescription Order, Quality Control Report, Tax Filing, etc.
A major benefit gained by both industry and government in the ubiquitous adoption GS1 standards is the trust created from encoding the globally unique GS1 Identification Keys and (where relevant) supplementary data into the barcodes and EDI messages to uniquely and unambiguously identify products/shipments/entities throughout the value chain. When these identifiers data are referenced against the GS1 Registries of GS1 licensees, products, locations and more, the products, ownership and authenticity, e.g. in Customs and Excise settings, can be verified. Data Semantics (the GS1 rules of how information is encoded/written into data carriers) provides further security to the GS1 system and enables interoperability between different companies and IT systems.
GS1 standards use open, non-proprietary and royalty free data carriers including barcodes and RFID technology. GS1 does not own barcodes nor data carriers. GS1 does not receive any revenue from the scanning of barcodes. The commonly used term, “GS1 Barcodes”, refers to when data is encoded into applicable barcodes in compliance with the GS1 standards.
Yes, anyone can generate a barcode symbol using free online, or proprietary, barcode generating software.
GS1 is not an ‘out of the box’ software solution GS1 often refers to its ‘system of standards’ and uses the word ‘solution’ in a generic sense – meaning GS1 standards can be and are used by industry to address supply chain issues, streamline trade processes and implement procurement automation systems. GS1 supports the entire ecosystem of ‘software and hardware solution’ for solution providers to be able to produce GS1 compliant service offerings. GS1 enables interoperability, the ability to communicate unambiguous product and business data and business messages between different and disparate systems, without the need for prior engagement or agreement on terminology and meaning.