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Email Misleads on Bar Codes

The standards group for bar codes in the United States warned that misinformation about bar codes that could confuse shoppers and harm retailers was being propagated nationwide via a fast-spreading viral email. The email stated that the first three digits in the string of numbers printed under a product's bar code could be interpreted by shoppers as indicating the product's country

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — The standards group for bar codes in the United States warned that misinformation about bar codes that could confuse shoppers and harm retailers was being propagated nationwide via a fast-spreading viral email.

The email stated that the first three digits in the string of numbers printed under a product's bar code could be interpreted by shoppers as indicating the product's country of origin. This was intended as a guide for shoppers seeking to avoid goods manufactured in certain countries, such as China, that have recently been the source of tainted goods. However, the information on the initial digits is incorrect and misleading, according to GS1 US here, which issues bar codes to U.S. CPG manufacturers.

“Consumers heeding this faulty advice are being misled and could unintentionally ‘boycott’ businesses or products they would otherwise choose to support,” GS1 US said in a statement released on Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving.

“As we head into the most important shopping season of the year for American businesses, we are concerned that some companies are going to lose sales as a result of this misguided email,” said Bob Noe, chief customer officer, GS1 US, in the statement.

Bar codes issued in North America — known as Universal Product Codes — contain 12 digits that represent the country of issuance, the product's manufacturer and the product itself. Bar codes issued elsewhere in the world — EAN codes — incorporate 13 digits representing the same information. In both cases, the first three digits typically represent the country where the bar code has been issued. There are 108 GS1 countries, each one issuing a different three-digit prefix.

However, just because a bar code was issued in a country — say, the United Kingdom — in no way guarantees that the product bearing the code was manufactured in that country. “It tells you nothing about where the product was made,” said Noe. As a result, the email's claim “is somewhat grounded in reality, but just enough to be dangerous, even if you're reading it correctly, which is not a safe assumption,” he added.

The origin of the viral email is unclear, said Jon Mellor, a spokesman for GS1 US, adding, “It's like a chain letter.” The email provides a list of 13 countries and their bar-code prefixes, but GS1 has not heard from any retailers that have observed consumers acting on the information, he said.