The term European Article Number (EAN) was the original name for a GTIN-13. In fact, a significant number of retailers still refer to these numbers as ‘EANs’. As a manufacturer or supplier, if you’re asked for your product’s EAN, you just need to provide the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) that you’ve been assigned by GS1 UK.
One place where the term ‘EAN’ is still accurate is the name for the barcode symbol itself. If you want your barcode to scan at point of sale anywhere in the world, you can encode your GTIN-13 in an EAN-13 barcode symbol (see illustration below).
