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Selling any product through a retail sales channel requires that the packaging include the U.P.C. or EAN-13 Barcode. Large manufacturers with hundreds of products go to GS1 to rent UPC/EAN-13 Prefixes (the vendor identification portion of the full barcode), and append their item code to those to provide full barcodes for hundreds or even thousands of products. They can well afford the prices charged by these organizations that control distribution of new Prefixes, ranging from a little under (US)$1000 which obtains 10 full barcodes up to more than (US)$100,000 which obtains thousands of barcodes. Additionally each manfacturer must pay an annual fee to continue to use the barcode number.

Small companies, the backbone of economic recovery and with one or just a few products, need more cost effective sources to obtain legitimate U.P.C. Barcodes. Many depend on U.P.C. resellers who provide one or just a few numbers generally for less than (US)$100.00. U.P.C. numbers from Prefixes acquired from GS1/UCC prior to August 2002 may be resold. Starting with that date, GS1 included clauses in their license agreement that prohibits the sale of licensed numbers to another organization.

New manufacturers often want to be assured that the number/barcode they were purchasing was legitimate and free from licensing entanglements. Sometimes they contacted the creator of the U.P.C. Barcode, George Laurer, for clarification. George often did the legwork to determine the legitimacy of the U.P.C. number that was sold. This website has been developed by him and others to provide that service on a wider basis, to provide assurance that legitimate numbers were acquired from resellers who can be trusted to provide valid numbers. To be considered for distribution by most large retail channels, the U.P.C./EAN-13 number must be legitimate. Get caught using a fake or simply copied U.P.C./EAN-13 code and your credibility with the retailer is finished.