The guide developed by major European retailers and consumer goods manufacturers together with GS1 in Europe also provides increased confidence to those who are new to the technology. The adoption of EPC and RFID technology is expanding rapidly in different regions of the world, including in Europe. In order to use EPC and RFID efficiently, all companies involved need to agree on the basic specifications and standards needed to implement the technology.

Although GS1 EPCglobal standards are currently in place, there is still the need for guidelines and references of good practices to help facilitate any future EPC implementations in Europe. Major stakeholders in the European retail environment including Carrefour, Henkel, Kraft Foods, METRO Group, Nestle, P&G and REWE Group have actively participated in this joint collaborative effort and agreed on the content of the European Guide.

The first version of the European Guide, available at www.gs1.eu/epcguidelines, is structured in a Q&A format providing answers to the most common questions raised in the market place. The guide is focused at business level to keep management better informed of the key issues related to the deployment of EPC and RFID technology as well as to provide access to relevant complementary information. The European Guide addresses common RFID questions such as; “what are the main benefits that companies are trying to achieve by using the technology?”, “how can RFID help improve the consumer experience of products and stores?”and “what are the radio frequency usage rules in Europe?”.

The European Guide is not a static document. Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers in Europe are invited to contribute to the guide in order to build on its foundations and improve its value to companies planning to use the technology. The second version, which is currently under development, will focus on the best ways to implement EPC and RFID technology in the retail environment as well as tools which allow the evaluation and measurement of adoption.      

GS1 EPCglobal Standards

GS1 EPCglobal standards are a set of integrated industry-driven standards which have been developed to meet user’s requirements enabling the identification of objects, data capture and sharing of information among partners throughout the supply chain.
      
About GS1

GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility in supply chains. GS1 is driven by more than a million companies, who execute more than five billion transactions a day with the GS1 System of Standards. This makes it the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world.