For more than 15 years, our product packaging used inexpensive UPC barcodes purchased from ezupc.com without any issues.

Then a few weeks ago, while preparing to ship a newly developed product to a stocking reseller, we discovered that our UPC had been misappropriated by a manufacturer in China and now appears on their unrelated product sold by Target, Amazon, and others.

When we contacted EZ UPC, we learned that although we are the sole authorized user of that barcode, EZ UPC–issued GTINs are not traceable in the GS1 database. Those barcodes resolve only to EZ UPC’s parent company, so there is no protection against misuse.

EZ UPC advised that companies planning to sell products through stocking resellers should license GTINs directly from www.gs1us.org. We also learned that some larger resellers now reject or relabel products whose barcodes cannot be verified in the GS1 database.

To address this, we repackaged that product using a GS1-issued UPC barcode. The initial cost was $750 for a block of 100 UPCs, plus $150 per year—far greater than EZ UPC’s one-time fee.

The upside is that those barcodes now resolve directly to our brand in the GS1 database, which provides at least some protection against future misuse.

For a small U.S. business, this is one of many recent cost increases: our once inexpensive UPC codes have been replaced by higher, recurring GS1 fees; QuickBooks licensing rose from roughly $150 every three years to about $1,100 per year; and U.S. tariffs added close to $10,000 in costs last year, with a much bigger jump expected in 2026.

I'm with you.
When I purchased Conde Systems, they had 1000 UPC codes from GS1.
I have renewed them $500.00/yr twice now, but not using them as we are not selling on Amazon with this company as they were.
Not sure if I should drop them off or fire up the Amazon account for that company.
They were doing a million a year on Amazon, but my understanding it was a loss.

Oh, and don't get me started on quickbooks. They have gone quite mad over the last few years.
Time to find a competitor or just go to a bookkeeper, which at this point would not cost any more than QB.

David