GS1 UK Reviews 50

I bought some barcodes to sell on Amazon and now they are trying to make me pay for an annual subscription to use them! Appalling behaviour and extortionate business practices. Even trying to cancel my account resulting in a lengthy customer survey. Appalling and disgraceful company

After being with this company for several years we decided to cancel our subscription. 4 weeks later we received an email saying payment is due today!? I noticed another review had the same issue further down, and GS1 replied sorry it was an admin error. Obviously not because they are still doing it, and they have now emailed me demanding I give them a reason why I want to cancel the subscription, before they will cancel it!! I cancelled it a month ago!

We've used GS1 for our barcoding and information QR for a few years now. They are helpful, responsive and have built a community of founders within what they do. I highly recommend them and feel secure knowing my business is crossing the t's and dotting the i's when it comes to packaging compliance, traceability and customer ease.

The team are so lovely and always incredibly helpful! They provide useful industry invite and make us feel valued as members.

Fantastic service from GS1 UK! I was struggling with barcode issues on Amazon and their team went above and beyond to assist me. Their webinars are informative and easy to follow, offering valuable insights that made all the difference. The tools available to members are extremely useful and helped me get my products listed without hassle. Couldn't ask for better support – thanks GS1 UK!

As a small independent business, I’ve found GS1 UK extremely frustrating.

I only need 146 barcodes, yet I’m required to pay for 1,100, with no option to pay for what I actually use or to pause sensibly during periods with no wholesale sales. Being charged hundreds of pounds for codes I will never need feels completely disproportionate and unsupportive of small businesses.

The support experience made this worse. I spent multiple emails trying to get a clear answer to basic questions about what happens to existing barcodes and data if an account is closed and later reopened. Despite asking repeatedly, the responses were vague, inconsistent, and failed to address the practical scenarios I raised, making it impossible to make an informed decision.

GS1 may work for large companies, but for small independents it feels rigid, expensive, and poorly supported, and I wholly agree with the 1-star reviews here.

Edit: Hi Kate, nowhere did I state my first name in my review. I consider your reply addressing my first name a breach of GDPR and I will be reporting you.

Excellent and very easy to learn

First word is HELPFUL! They spent a lot of time helping me. I had used GS1 UK before and I got confused with my company's original information and the current information. Thank you GS1 UK for sorting everything out. Very much appreciated!

GS1 is an effective service and promptly responds to the customer, which truly makes it different.

A great team. Responsive and knowledgeable.

Been trying for 2 days to Submit my company details and Continue to payment during the registration process, but the Continue to payment button doesn't do anything, neither it shows any error nor it reloads the page.

If your a small business and want to trade with online marketplaces you need GTIN numbers. Now for some reason this company is hogging the market. It is a monopoly and this is wrong. There is no need for such a monopoly here in the UK
Now today, my business tried to get membership, so we could start trading on one of the marketplaces. So as we make our own products we need lots of GTINs. However if you trade under £99,999 a year you can only buy 10 GTIN numbers at £60.
What a joke, as my business has over 200 lines. Now they do have 100 GTINs for £120. But you have to have an income of over £100,000 a year.
Now you might think, well I just put I have income over that amount but you cannot do that due to VAT reg. So they fleecing small business straight away by charging them loads more, all for generating a few numbers, that my home computer could do in a few seconds.
So if you want more than 10, you can pay for 100 for another £60. That still adds up to more than a company that has an income of £100,000. Makes sense I suppose if the actual thing they are doing is hard or takes a lot of work. However it doesn't believe me.
So then you complete the company sign up, then pay. Guess what in our case, nothing. Then 10 minutes later get a email stating the payment cancelled. No reasons why, just cancelled. However my bank says something different. It states the payment going through. So go back to these scammers. Nope, payment cancelled. Now remember you have to register with them so you can create the unique codes. As we make our own products. So I know my card is fine, I have an email stating that the payment cancelled for some reason. So we go once more, as maybe it just a glitch. Guess what same thing. So I contact my bank, nope now £120 coming out of my account. So that £120 for nothing. So you send them a message. They helpful state that you can check the ticket number for the complaint on their site. This doesn't work of course. So a business is stuck. Cannot start up trade on the marketplaces. Is £120 down as been scammed by this company. A company that has a monopoly on these GTINs. Absolutely disgusting, ohh and no rush they might respond in 2 days.
Well lets see if they respond to a court summons as that what I doing.
UK government needs to sort these scammers out.

Helena Davies - I could kiss you! Been having an issue with Amazon for like a month! Their customer service was no help, I was going in circles trying to list 1 single product, turns out it was an issue on their end. Helena explained that their updated version of adding GTINs etc is faulty and she provided me a certificate of proof, as soon as I submitted that with Amazon, guess what, product approved, FFS! Amazon needs to fix up, thank you so much Helena Davies you need a raise!

So far, I've raised three 'tickets' and had no response. I realised within moments that I didn't want this service, so I was sure to ask for a refund and wanted to cancel my account straightaway (I only still have it open in case they should reply); I wish I'd read these reviews first. They appeared at the top of Google AI recommendations, but they seem suspicious, and I am extremely concerned about my money. Having read this, I am also worried about how much more money they may attempt to take in the future. It's a nightmare so far.

Thanks for getting in touch, Kate. Here are my membership details: Account Number 5070003803101

I have now been issued a refund. Although I haven't as yet got the money, the response from the team at GS1 was great, and so I have added two stars to my review.

Charging my tiny family business £600 per year for simply holding numbers in a database!

GS1 have a monopoly on barcodes in the UK and aren't remotely interested in adhering to ethical standards required of a so-called nonprofit.

Obviously based on their incredibly low Trustpilot rating, they simply don't care and are happy to continue to rip small businesses off. Where is the UK government and legal system?

A quick response to their disingenuous reply - their offered solution was us spending tens of thousands trying to swap barcodes on products all over the planet! There's a reason why they have one of the lowest ratings on Trustpilot - they are truly awful.

This company holds you hostage

They try to dictate what you can and cannot list for your own manufactured goods even if the products are older than gs1 are

They think they can continue to get a pay out every year and control your business

Holding a company hostage is illegal in the UK!
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In reply to your reply. you wanted to charge the annual fee based on our turnover, refused to accept amazon is only 4 % of our trade and therefore should be charged on that basis

You have also wanted me to delete a listing or two on amazon that are older than gs1

That was and is unacceptable

I WILL NOT BE DICTATED WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT LIST ON THE NET!

You are not a good company, you hold companies hostage to increase your bottom line

That is illegal in the UK!

I would like to confirm the reviews above. This company charges £60 per year for a single barcode and tries to monopolize the barcode market. I spoke with a woman about this, and of course, she said, "That's our company policy, and that's how we operate" – and then she hung up the call. No respect for customers.

Once you are stuck with them, it takes time to get unstuck. They know it and take advantage of it. Weak technology, high prices and unhelpful customer service. We are now gradually transitioning all new products to a different EIN provider.

One star is too much. Shocking company, not to mention a complete rip off. Avoid at all costs!

Charging obscene amounts of money for barcodes.