EAN stands for European Article Numbering and is a code made of a combination of numbers and letters in a specific order. The EAN Code is a type of barcode that encodes a product number, and it's used to ensure traceability and to automate production management. It helps to identify the products that are available in the inventory and reduce the risk of making mistakes while processing the products.

An EAN code can be a series of 13 or 8 digits depending on the size of the product, and the combination of digits is made considering the country code, the manufacturer code, the specific product code and the check digit, which confirms that it is the correct product.

The European Article Numbering code used to be needed only when you sold online or in-store to people who lived in Europe, but nowadays it is used internationally – except in the USA and in Canada, as they use UPC. 

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Exhibit – The difference between a UPC and EAN