An EAN-13 barcode (originally “European Article Number”, but now renamed ”International Article Number”) is a 13 digit (12 + check digit) barcoding standard which is a superset of the 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) system developed in the United States.
The EAN-13 barcodes are used worldwide (excluding US and Canada) for marking products often sold at retail point of sale. The numbers encoded in EAN-13 bar codes are product identification numbers, which are also called Japanese Article Number (JAN) in Japan.