Brand registration and EANs: own your assortment

If you sell on marketplaces like Bol.com or Amazon, or distribute through Google Merchant Center, your products need to be identifiably yours. That means: a registered brand name, and your own range of European Article Numbers (EANs). This article explains why this matters, and how to set it up.

Why this matters

Every serious sales channel — Bol.com, Amazon, Carrefour, Google Merchant Center — performs an automated check on the EAN you submit. They look it up in the GS1 global registry and ask one question: does this EAN belong to the seller listing it?

If the answer is no, the channel can:

• Reject the listing.

• Suppress the product so it doesn't show in search.

• Flag your account as potentially infringing or fraudulent.

• In repeat cases: suspend your seller account.

Using the manufacturer's EAN (the one your supplier uses) means dozens of other resellers are listing the same product with that same code — none of them owns it, and the platform sees a competitive mess. Using your own EAN, tied to your own registered brand, makes your listing clean, unique, and verifiable.

Step 1 — Register your brand name

Before you can own EANs, you need a registered trademark. Two routes, depending on your reach:

• BOIP (Benelux Office for Intellectual Property) — protects your brand in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Good if you sell only within Benelux.

• EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) — protects your brand across all EU member states. Recommended if you plan to sell across borders.

Both are official government registries. Registration takes a few weeks and involves a one-off fee. You receive a registration number that proves your brand is legally yours.

Step 2 — Buy your own EAN range from GS1

EANs are issued by GS1, the global standards organisation behind barcodes. GS1 operates as a federation of national member organisations — each country has its own:

• Netherlands: GS1 Nederland

• Germany: GS1 Germany

• Belgium & Luxembourg: GS1 Belgilux

• France: GS1 France

• UK: GS1 UK

• Other countries: see gs1.org

You register with the GS1 organisation in the country where your business is established. Once you become a member, GS1 assigns you a company prefix — a unique starting number — and you generate your own EANs from that prefix. Those EANs are globally valid, regardless of where you sell.

Pricing is based on the size of the range you need (how many unique products you list) and your annual revenue. For most resellers, this is a manageable yearly subscription.

Step 3 — Combine brand + EAN range

Once you have both, you can issue an EAN for every product variant in your assortment. Assign them in your webshop as you list products.

From this point forward:

• Marketplace verification checks pass — your brand and EAN match the GS1 registry.

• Your listings are unique. Other resellers selling the same product (sourced from the same supplier) use different EANs, so you don't compete on identifier collisions.

• You build a real, defensible product catalog under your own brand.

What about the EANs already on Everspring products?

Some Everspring products carry an EAN supplied by the manufacturer. These are useful for internal identification and matching across suppliers, but they are not yours. If you publish them on Bol.com, Amazon, or in Google Merchant Center, you'll hit the conflict situation described above.

For external channels, always replace the manufacturer EAN with your own. Keep the manufacturer EAN as a reference field internally if you find it useful, but don't push it outward.

Next steps

• Register your trademark via BOIP or EUIPO.

• Apply for GS1 membership in your country.

• Once you have your prefix, plan how you'll assign EANs to your assortment.

• Read about why Everspring's catalog works the way it does — it explains the philosophy behind the product data you'll be enriching with your own brand.