What’s GS1 DataBar (Interim) Coupon Barcode?

UCC Coupon Barcode has been in use in retail industry for a long time (mid 1980). At first, it was a UPC-A symbol with system ID 5. A UPC-A symbol could only hold 12 digits, which was not enough for additional information such as offer code, expiration date or household ID numbers. Therefore, a UCC/EAN 128 barcode symbol was attached to the UPC-A symbol. An EAN-13 symbol was also in use in addition to the UPC-A symbol, which starts with 99, hence called EAN-99 Coupon Barcode. After more than 20 years in use, a need to encode even more data for complex barcode couponing came out. GS1 US (formerly UCC) introduced a new coupon format using GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked Barcode (formerly RSS Expanded Stacked Barcode). This barcode, GS1 DataBar Coupon Barcode, would be mandatory nationwide on January 2011 (Sunrise 2011). During the transition, GS1 proposed using the UPC-A barcode and GS1 Expanded Stacked barcode side by side, known as GS1 DataBar Interim Coupon Barcode.