GS1 prefixes
A GS1 company prefix is the licensed number range that GS1 assigns to your organisation. Every GTIN (barcode number) you create begins with one of your GS1 prefixes. Registering your prefixes in Traceable lets the platform confirm that the GTINs on your battery passports genuinely belong to you, which is part of demonstrating GTIN ownership under EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 Annex XIII.
You manage prefixes in Settings → Company Profile, in the GS1 Prefixes section.
Why this matters
The publish gate (the set of checks a battery passport must pass before it goes live) uses your registered prefixes in two ways:
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At least one registered prefix is required to publish, on every plan. A battery passport cannot be published until your company has registered at least one GS1 prefix. If you have none, the publish gate reports the gap "GS1 prefix not registered — required to publish. Visit Company Profile to add yours." and blocks publication. This applies regardless of your plan; there is no plan tier on which the check is skipped.
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A product's GTIN must match one of your prefixes. If a product has a GTIN assigned, that GTIN must begin with one of your registered prefixes. If it does not, the publish gate reports a "GTIN ownership invalid" gap and blocks publication until the mismatch is resolved.
The settings section itself tells you the same thing: when your prefix list is empty, it shows a callout titled Required to publish, explaining that without at least one registered prefix your company cannot publish a Digital Product Passport.
Registering a prefix does not generate GTINs for you, and Traceable does not verify the prefix against the GS1 licensing registry. Registration records which prefixes you own so that the platform can check your GTINs against them. Obtaining a GS1 licence and assigning GTINs to your products remains your responsibility.
Registering a prefix
- Go to Settings → Company Profile and scroll to the GS1 Prefixes section.
- Enter a prefix in the input field. A prefix is 4 to 12 digits, numbers only. Your prefixes typically appear on your GS1 licence certificate, issued by your GS1 Member Organisation.
- Press Enter or click Add. The prefix appears as a badge in the list.
- Repeat for each prefix your GS1 licence covers (up to 50 per company).
- Click Save changes to persist the list.
Your changes are not saved until you click Save changes. Adding or removing prefixes only updates the on-screen list until you save.
If you hit the "GS1 prefix not registered" gap while trying to publish, this page is the resolution path: register the prefix(es) your GS1 licence issuer assigned you, save, and re-run the publish.
Removing a prefix
- In the GS1 Prefixes section, click the × on the prefix badge you want to remove.
- Click Save changes.
There is no in-place edit. To correct a prefix, remove the incorrect one and add the correct one, then save.
If you remove all your prefixes, the publish gate will block publishing any battery passport until you register at least one prefix again. This applies on every plan.
Validation rules
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Digits only, 4 to 12 digits per prefix |
| Maximum | 50 prefixes per company |
| Duplicates | A prefix already in your list cannot be added again |
If you enter a value that breaks one of these rules, the page shows an inline message, for example:
"<value>" is not a valid GS1 prefix (4-12 digits only).Prefix "<value>" is already in the list.Maximum 50 GS1 prefixes per company.
Serial and batch identifiers: the 20-character rule
GS1 prefixes govern the GTIN. Two other identifiers on your products travel inside the same GS1 Digital Link and have their own hard constraint:
- Serial number (GS1 Application Identifier 21)
- Batch or lot ID (GS1 Application Identifier 10)
Each is limited to at most 20 characters, using printable ASCII characters with no spaces. Traceable enforces this at data entry: a value that is too long or contains disallowed characters is rejected in the product editor with a specific message, for example:
Serial Number is 21 characters; GS1 allows at most 20 (AI 21). Longer values make the item-level GS1 Digital Link permanently unreachable.
Why the rule is strict: before this check existed, an over-length serial number would save and publish without complaint, and the passport's item-level link (/01/{gtin}/21/{serial}) would then return "Product Not Found" forever, because the resolver enforces the GS1 limit that data entry did not. Two live production passports were unreachable at item level for exactly this reason before the entry-time check shipped. If your ERP or labelling system produces identifiers longer than 20 characters, shorten them before entering them into Traceable, because the printed QR code on the physical battery has to resolve for the passport's lifetime.
GTIN integrity checks
Alongside prefix ownership, Traceable validates the GTIN itself:
- Check digit: the GTIN's check digit is validated when you create or update a product, so a mistyped GTIN is caught at entry rather than at publish.
- Global uniqueness: a GTIN can belong to only one product across the whole platform, not merely within your own account. Combined with the required-prefix rule, this closes the path by which an unregistered party could publish against someone else's GTIN.
- Ambiguity handling: if a public
/01/{gtin}link ever matches more than one product, the resolver shows a chooser page listing the matches rather than silently picking one. See QR codes and the resolver.
How prefixes relate to QR codes and GTINs
When a product has a GTIN assigned, Traceable can build a GS1 Digital Link QR code for it (the format EU Battery Regulation requires on the physical battery). The GTIN in that QR code is the same GTIN the publish gate checks against your registered prefixes. Registering your prefixes therefore keeps your QR codes, your published passports, and your declared GTIN ownership consistent.
For how GTIN-based QR codes are generated, see QR codes. For the developer view of GTIN resolution, see DPP endpoints.