It is necessary to become a member of the GS1 Bulgaria Council and get a company prefix. This prefix enables you to identify your products with unique, internationally recognized numbers represented by a barcode.

Any company, organization or sole trader who wants to benefit from the world’s only open, multi-industry and global standards for identifying goods and marking them with a barcode must become a member of GS1 Bulgaria. GS1 Bulgaria is a non-profit organization representing the interests of manufacturers and traders. Virtually all actors in the supply chain, including transport companies and packaging manufacturers, should look to GS1 membership as a means of improving efficiency along supply and demand chains. For large companies that have subsidiaries, they must also become GS1 members and receive their own company prefix. This certifies the uniqueness of each individual company, whether it manufactures, trades, issues invoices or receives payments.

See the rate for obtaining a GS1 company prefix and annual membership fee listed in Membership Rates.
The initial installment is determined based on the company’s revenues for the past year.
The amount of the membership fee depends on how many types of items you will need barcodes for.
The initial fee is paid upon submission of the documents. The membership fee is payable from the following calendar year, and you will receive a prior notification letter at the correspondence address.
Documents are processed from 2 to 5 working days. You will receive the package of documents by courier at the correspondence address or at our place.

Each individual item (difference in color, size, composition, packaging, etc.) is identified by a separate number. We offer you a package of 100, 1000, 10,000 or 100,000. You decide what the assortment of items you want to code is. We do not provide you with individual numbers. You determine the item numbers by prefixing them with the company prefix we received.

GS1 Bulgaria provides single GTIN-8 numbers, with the maximum number per company being up to 5 numbers. GTIN-8 numbers are eight digits long and are designed to mark small items.

No. GS1 Bulgaria’s role is to administer the coding system that allows your company access to the global market and your partners to automate supply chain processes.
However, GS1 Bulgaria offers the generation of barcodes EAN-13, EAN-8, ISSN, ISBN, etc. Also on the website of GS1 Bulgaria www.gs1bg.org you can find a list of service providers based on GS1 standards.

Yes. Since 2015, for GS1 Bulgaria member companies, we provide the opportunity to enter data about their products and their assigned GTIN numbers in the Product Catalog. It is available through the profiles of the companies in the renewed information system of GS1 Bulgaria.

A check digit is the result of arithmetic operations with the preceding digits in an identification number. The digit is used to verify that the data is correctly composed and, when scanning, that the barcode is read correctly.
GS1 Bulgaria offers the calculation of a check digit online on the page: www.gs1bg.org to facilitate the management of your Global Trade Unit Numbers (GTUs) with which you identify products.

In the “Check Digit Calculation” menu, simply enter your assigned GS1 Company Prefix and the item number you’ve determined, and with the push of a button, you’ll instantly get the entire number’s check digit.

Целият номер е съответния идентификационен номер на артикула.

NO. The first three digits are the prefix of the country where the company is registered. There is no obligation for companies to be registered with GS1 in the country where the goods are produced. The prefix of GS1 Bulgaria is 380. The fact that a given identification number starts with 380 does not mean that the product was produced in Bulgaria, but that the company that coded the given product is registered in GS1 Bulgaria.

A complete list of the prefixes of all GS1 national organizations can be found at www.gs1.org.

For products starting with 380, you will find information on the BGBarcode website or through the BG Barcode mobile application. For products from all over the world, simply log in at www.gepir.org or through the GS1 Bulgaria – Global Register Search (GEPIR) page, as well as with the mobile application.

In the general sense, it is not true. The barcode simply represents the number written below it, which in turn uniquely identifies the product. All product information is contained in the database on the computer. The only exception is GTIN-13 and GTIN-12 numbers for variable measure items and coupon numbers that include the price of either the item measure or the coupon value.

Not true. The GS1 national organization defines company prefixes that can vary between 6 and 10 digits. The first two or three digits indicate the country that determines the company number that follows. Also, the company prefix does not always identify the manufacturer, but the company that assigned the number (usually this is the trademark owner).

No. The GS1 system allows for three different types of barcodes. EAN-13, ITF-14, GS1-128 to be used for marking on cartons that do not go through the retail checkout. The coding system is designed so that different symbols can be used depending on the information requirements and the materials being printed on.

This is not intended. The GS1 system is primarily intended for open trade and will often be used in parallel with local systems (a correlation table is mandatory). Some businesses will replace their internal coding systems, but using the GS1 system (intended for ease of use across a variety of computer systems) does not necessarily mean ignoring systems primarily intended for internal use.

No. EAN / UPC, ITF-14 and GS1-128 barcodes have standardized data content, which means they can be used by any company whose system is based on the GS1 system and will not be confused with any other symbolism. Other barcodes, such as Code-39, do not have a multi-industry standard approach to the data they contain. Therefore, they can only be used in a controlled environment where no misinterpretation will occur.

Scanning is the process of “reading” a barcode using a scanner. This does not prove the quality of the product, just that it is scannable.
Verification is when a barcode is scanned with a special device called a verifier, which provides a detailed analysis of the barcode’s quality. The verifier verifies whether a given barcode will be able to be read by a scanner.

The larger the barcode symbol, the easier it will be to read. We recommend a nominal magnification factor of 100%, which can be increased to 200% or decreased to 80% depending on print quality. Please refer to the size table in the GS1 Barcodes menu on the GS1 Bulgaria page.

A product change means any modification or improvement during the life of a product. This is determined by the manufacturer of goods.

In case of minor product changes or improvements, there is no need to assign a new Global Trade Unit Number (GTIN). For example: change in label design, minor change in product description or ingredients.

When the change in the product concerns the quantity of the products, dimensions of the products, type of packaging, name or brand of the product, description of the product, a new GNTE – GTIN must be determined.

Please review the rules for determining the GTIN in detail.

DataBar is the new name for RSS – Reduced Space Symbology. The GS1 DataBar will contain more information in the same area, or the same amount of data in a reduced area, providing advantages for both retailers and manufacturers. The data structure will follow that of the GS1 – 128 code, which means that additional information such as batch number, weight, price, expiration date, etc. will be able to be encoded. This code will be useful for various applications, including for marking small items, variable weight items, coupons and also tracking the movement of goods.

For more information, refer to http://www.gs1.org/productssolutions/barcodes/databar

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. This is a technology that has already been around for many years. Simply put, it’s a technology that involves tags (chips) that emit radio signals and devices called readers that pick up the signal. Therefore, in an RFID system, there is no requirement for visual access when identifying objects because the RFID tags do not need to be visible to the reading devices in order to be read.

Electronic Product Code (EPC) is the next generation product identifier. An EPC is a unique number that identifies unique objects (items, pallets, locations, etc.) that move through the supply chain. Like existing numbering schemes used in commerce, the EPC is composed of two numbers that identify the manufacturer and the product type. What is new is that the EPC uses an additional series of numbers, namely a serial number, which serves to uniquely identify individual items. The EPC is the key to the information about the given product that it identifies and that exists in the EPCglobal network.

The EPCglobal network is a group of technologies that enable rapid and automatic identification and exchange of information about units moving through the supply chain. The EPCglobal network is a method of using RFID technology in the global supply and demand chain, by using low-cost RFID tags and readers to transmit the Electronic Product Code and then provide access to a large volume of information related to this code via the Internet , which can be used by authorized users.

For more information please visit www.epcglobalinc.org

Yes. The EAN system was designed based on the US UPC system, therefore US symbols will work perfectly in all GS1 systems.

Companies in the US and Canada, as well as the rest of the world, simply apply the UPC codes to all their products and encounter no problems.

More detailed information can be found either on the GS1 website: www.gs1.org or by contacting GS1 Bulgaria (a contact list of GS1 National Organizations around the world can be found under the heading “Contact us” above the specified webpage).

Изчерпателна информация за правилата за определяне на Глобален Номер на Търговска Единица може да намерите в документа GS1_GTIN_Management_Standard.

Информация за контакти и фирми, които притежават определени ГНТЕта могат да се намерят тук.